Peter Thomas Hay is an authority on British Steam Railways. He is author to numerous books and articles on the subject. His Steaming Through series of books is based on the archive of railway photographs taken himself in the 50's and 60's.

Biography

Peter Hay was born in Brighton

Brighton

Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...

, Sussex

Sussex

Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...

 to John Edward Hay (Mayor of Brighton 1953) and May Hollingdale. He is brother to the former Conservative MP John Albert Hay. Evacuated to Toronto, Canada during WWII, he was subsequently educated at Brighton Grammar School

Brighton Grammar School

Brighton Grammar School is an independent, Anglican, day school for boys, located in Brighton, a south-eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia....

 and the London School of Economics

London School of Economics

The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...

. He served in the Royal Navy as a Commander, and worked on the railways including holding the position of Station Master at Pevensey. He then worked at the Ministry of Transport before leaving to concentrate on writing, lecturing and running the family business. He married Patricia Mary Sweeney, they had four children, Fionnuala (b. 1965), Lawrence (b. 1967), Daniel (b. 1969) and Teresa (b. 1972).
In 2011 at the age of 79 while conducting Industrial History research at the Minllyn slate mine in North Wales, Peter and his son Daniel both suffered a fall in the mine resulting multiple bone fractures. They exited the mine with their injuries and were rescued by a Sea King from C Flight of No. 22 Squadron RAF

No. 22 Squadron RAF

No. 22 Squadron of the Royal Air Force operates the Sea King HAR.3 and HAR.3A at three stations in the southern United Kingdom. The squadron was originally formed in 1915 as an aerial reconnaissance unit of the Royal Flying Corps serving on the Western Front during First World War...

 Air Sea Rescue in Anglesey and taken to Bangor hospital for treatment.

Books published

• Pre Grouping Southern Steam in the 1950s (Sep 1983) I Allan, ISBN 0-7110-1255-5.
• Steaming Through Kent (Sep 1984) Middleton Press, ISBN 0-9065-2013-4.
• Steaming Through East Hampshire (Apr 1985) Middleton Press, ISBN 0-9065-2018-5.
• Steaming Through East Sussex (Oct 1985) Middleton Press, ISBN 0-9065-2022-3.
• Brunel - Engineering Giant (Dec 1985) Trafalgar Square Publishing, ISBN 0-7134-5172-6.
• Steaming Through West Sussex (Oct 1987) Middleton Press, ISBN 0-9065-2050-9.
• Steaming Through The Isle of Wight (Jun 1988) Middleton Press, ISBN 0-9065-2056-8.
• Steaming Through West Hants (Jul 1989) Middleton Press, ISBN 0-9065-2069-X.
• Steaming Through Surrey (Jul 1989) Middleton Press, ISBN 0-9065-2039-8.
• British Railways Steaming Through Scotland (1991) Defiant Publications, ISBN 0-9468-5735-0.
• British Railways Steaming on the South Coast (1991) Defiant Publications, ISBN 0-9468-5729-6.
• Steaming Through Cornwall (Jun 1994) Middleton Press, ISBN 1-8737-9330-8.

See also

List of people from Brighton and Hove

An example of the Author's work: "Midhurst Filiming"