William Gosse Hay

William Gosse Hay (1875–1945) was an Australian author and essayist.

W. G. Hay was born on 17 November 1875 at "Linden" in the eastern suburbs of Adelaide, the second son of Alexander Hay a wealthy merchant, pastoralist and politician, and his second wife Agnes Grant Hay, née Gosse.

He was educated by a private tutor on his parents' cattle station, then at Melbourne Grammar School, subsequently at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied law.

William Gosse Hay and Mary Violet Williams were married on 26 October 1901 at the chapel of St. Peter's College, where her late father, Rev. Francis Williams, had been head master. They lived until 1924 Beaumont then Victor Harbor.

Hay's mother and sister were lost at sea aboard the SS Waratah in July 1909. In 1911, as administrator of the estate of his brother Alexander Gosse Hay (1874–1901), he was involved in legal argument related to the insurance paid out on the destruction by fire of his parents' Victor Harbor home "Mt. Breckan", to which he had an option to purchase. He suffered a breakdown and that same year he and his wife visited Tasmania, where he gathered historic material for his writing.

He died 21 March 1945 at Victor Harbor after collapsing during an attempt to save his home from bushfire.

William had a brother and two sisters and eight half-brothers and sisters, and many notable relatives including:

William Gosse Hay married Mary Violet Williams ( – 31 May 1949) on 26 October 1901. They lived at "Tower House" on Beaumont Common, later moving to "Nangawooka" near Victor Harbor in 1924. They also built a seaside place at Seacliff. They had three sons:

The 3rd issue of 1946 of the Australian literary magazine "Southerly" was devoted to the works of W. G. Hay.

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