John Stuart Hay

Born on 27 September 1875, John Stuart Hay was an English historian and author. He is chiefly remembered for The Amazing Emperor Heliogabalus, an early full-length biography of the Roman emperor Elagabalus that helped fix his reputation as a writer drawn to unusual figures from the ancient world.

Hay's career was not limited to books. During the Irish Conscription Crisis of 1918, he produced what became known as the Hay Plan, linking his name to a notable episode in British and Irish political history.

After the First World War, he moved to Athens, where he worked as an antiquities dealer. He died on 26 April 1949, leaving behind a small but distinctive place in historical writing.