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World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment
Pte. Elias James Kay
British Army 9th (Pioneers) Battalion Gordon Highlanders
from:Preston, Lancashire
My great-grandfather, Elias James Kay, was a Lancastrian working at Denny's shipyard, Dumbarton, Scotland, when he joined the Gordon Highlanders in 1914. He was allotted to 9th Battalion, which was later designated as the Pioneer Battalion. After training at Aldershot and Haslemere in Hampshire and Perham Down in Wiltshire, the battalion, as part of 15th (Scottish) Division moved to France. There Elias saw service at Loos, some of the Somme battles, Arras, Third Ypres and many others.
When the Pioneer battalions were reorganised Elias was transferred to the Division's 46th Brigade and 10th Battalion, The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles). It was with the Scottish Rifles that he was wounded and invalided home, never to return to combat.
His father (also Elias) had died in 1916 and of Mrs Alice Kay's three other sons who had enlisted Harold, was also invalided home in November 1916 from 1/4th Loyals. John and Albert were bothkilled on the same day the 20th of September 1917 in the 'Passchendaele' offensive (Third Ypres) serving with 1/7th King's (Liverpool) Regiment.
Elias married Alice Thompson in the last few months of 1917, perhaps when granted compassionate leave following the death of his brothers. He raised a family after the War (including my Nanna, Ena Elizabeth Kay) and served in the Admiralty Civil Police at a naval air base at Inskip during the Second World War. He had flecks of shrapnel leaving his body right up to his death in Preston in 1951. Elias was much-loved, his son Elias (known as Ellis) even inherited a love of the pipes from him.
It has been a moving and illuminating process to trace Elias's wartime service and I have recorded the story in a book: "The Road Unknown - With Private Elias Kay and 15th (Scottish) Division in the Great War."
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