2nd Lieut. Melville Herbert Kay

Melville Herbert Kay was born at Hāwera in the Taranaki region of New Zealand's North Island on 23 December 1890. He was the son of Rev. Walter Herbert Kay and Agnes Ellen Kay (née Innes-Jones) who married in Nelson, New Zealand in December 1884. The family later returned to West Thorney Rectory in Sussex. After attending St John's Foundation School at Leatherhead , Melville returned to New Zealand and took up farming. During World War I, he returned to England and enlisted to serve with the Durham Light Infantry, 8th Battalion. Melville was killed in action at the Somme whilst serving as a signalling officer. He was buried in the Warlencourt British Cemetery. Bio by Debbie McCauley (24 October 2021).

VARIOUS WAR ITEMS (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, November 17. On November 5 Second-lieutenant Melville Herbert Kay, of the Durham Light Infantry, was killed while acting as signalling officer. He was the younger son of the Rev. W. H. Kay, of West Thorney Rectory, Sussex. Born in New Zealand in 1890 Lieutenant Kay was educated at at John's Foundation School, Leatherhead returning subsequently to the dominion where- he went in for dairy farming. By March of this year he had completed his training in a British O.T.C., and he went to the front. His commanding officer writes: "He was a very capable and reliable officer, and always ready to do anything." Source: Otago Daily Times (27 January 1917, p. 8).

Sources

1. New Zealand War Graves Project: https://www.nzwargraves.org.nz/casualties/melville-herbert-kay
2. Otago Daily Times (27 January 1917, p. 8).