| Administrative History | .
Malcolm Vivian Hay joined the 1st Battalion of the Gordon Highlanders at the start of the First World War and was seriously wounded at the Battle of Mons and taken prisoner, eventually being transferred to a German fortress at Wurzburg, where he remained for several months. He was able, through a contact in Germany, to effect an exchange back to England, where after a period of recuperation, he was appointed head of M.I.1B, the Cryptology Department of the War Office (based at Cork Street, London), from 1915-1919.
Hay published an account of his war-time experiences, initially under a different name, in 'Wounded and a Prisoner of War' (Edinburgh, 1916); this was serialised in 'Blackwood's Magazine'. |