Kenneth Hay MBE, Leg d’Hon.

Photo: Crown Copyright.

Sunday 20 September 2026 marked the passing of D-Day veteran Kenneth Hay MBE, aged 101.

Born in 1925, he served in the 4th Dorset Infantry Regiment, landing at Courseulles-sur-Mer on D-Day +5. He was captured a month later while on a night patrol and transported to Zabrze in Poland where he was put to work in a coal mine.

As the Russian forces advanced, he and his fellow prisoners were force marched over 1,000 miles back into Germany over three months. Kenneth and the surviving prisoners were finally liberated by American forces, and he returned to the UK just days before VE Day.

Post war, Kenneth regularly visited schools to share stories of the war and answer questions from the school children considering it ‘his duty to pass it on’. He later became an ambassador for the British Normandy Memorial at Ver-sur-Mer in 2023 and regularly featured in D-Day ceremonies.

He was awarded the MBE for services to his community and the Legion d’Honneur from France, its highest Order of Merit.