Poor Boy – Cornet Alexander Hay of Nunraw
February 9, 2017 - The Chairman in News & Blog Posts, Chairman's Blog
I was at Waterloo last week staying at the Landmark Trust apartment, more about that later. However on one of our expeditions we visited the Church at Waterloo opposite The 
Wellington Museum and there we saw the memorial to Cornet Alexander Hay of Nunraw. Of interest to us as he is a kinsman of my wife.
But it is sad tale worth recording here. He was killed when only in his nineteenth year. He had obtained a commission in his brother William’s old regiment, the 16th Light Dragoons. William accompanied him to Belgium to introduce him to his brother officers. Alexander was killed in the last charge of the day, and although his brother spent days searching for the body, it was never recovered.
An old woman at Duns, Berwickshire used to say that she remembered his charger being brought home and led through the streets to the Castle.
The inscription, which is a quote from Virgil and translated, says: “Oh the pain and the glory! We hoped so much for your first day in battle” or words to that effect.
