‘An extraordinary gentleman': Normandy veteran from east London, Ken Hay, dies aged 101

Normandy veteran Ken Hay, who survived capture just weeks after D-Day and spent years educating children about the war, has died aged 101.

The British Normandy Memorial, for which he was an ambassador, announced his death on Sunday, saying he “gave everything to support the Trust’s work in sharing the message of Remembrance”.

“His passion for education was unwavering,” the organisation said in a statement on social media.

“The countless schoolchildren whose lives he touched with his stories of courage and resilience nicknamed him ‘Grandad Ken’.

Veteran Ken Hay at the Spirit of Normandy Trust service in Coleville-Montgomery, France (Gareth Fuller/PA)

“We extend our most sincere condolences to Ken’s sons Chris and Jeremy, all the Hay family and his very many friends.

“Ken Hay MBE Leg d’Hon. An extraordinary gentleman whose remarkable life will never be forgotten.”

Mr Hay, from Upminster in East London, served in the 4th Dorset infantry regiment and landed at Courseulles-sur-Mer days after the Allied invasion of Normandy.

He was captured during a night patrol on July 7-8 and was taken to Zabrze in Poland, where he was put to work as a prisoner of war in a coal mine.

Speaking to the Press Association in 2024 about his capture, Mr Hay recalled his first feelings were of “dread” and “fear”.

“We went out on night patrol, was supposed to be doing a blow up of a self-propelled gun in no man’s land, but in fact, it was behind their lines,” Mr Hay said.

“So they let us through and then very unfriendly, they sealed it and wouldn’t let us back, so we had a battle.

“We had 30 went out on our patrol, 16 including my brother, who was a corporal, got back, five of us got captured and then presumably nine got killed.”

As the Russians approached, the prisoners were marched to a new location, approximately 1,000 miles away, during which many of them died.

Veteran Ken Hay at the Spirit of Normandy Trust service in Coleville-Montgomery, France (Gareth Fuller/PA)

During the three-month march, Mr Hay said he once “lay down to die” after it became too painful to continue, but two friends turned back for him and lifted him with an “arm around each shoulder”.

Eventually they were liberated by American troops and Mr Hay returned to the UK, via Reims, on May 4 1945.

Recalling the moment he made it to his mother’s house in Barking, he said: “They came running down the road to greet me.

“They were having breakfast, I’d had breakfast with the Army, so I just had a cup of tea with them and we all went off to mass.

“I’m a Catholic, and we all went off to mass and I was home in time for VE Day on the 8th of May.”

After the war, he was appointed an MBE for services to the community and received the Legion d’Honneur, France’s highest order of merit.

Mr Hay regularly visited British schools to share stories of the war and answer questions, saying he believed it was his “duty to pass it on”.

Earlier this year, he attended a remembrance service at the General Montgomery monument in Colleville-Montgomery with fellow Second World War veteran Henry Rice as part of commemorations marking the 82nd anniversary of D-Day.

Recalling one of his school visits, Mr Hay said he had been asked by a 13-year-old girl how wars could be stopped.

He said: “I was stumped. How do you stop wars? And then Saint Paul came to my rescue… I said to her, ‘Love. Love yourself, your friends, your family at home, the people you met today, the people you met yesterday’.