Lance Corporal James Kay, 39, had served for 12 years in Border Regiment, Carlisle, United Kingdom and had been an apprentice bootmaker before migrating to Australia. A labourer, Kay lived with his wife Mary in Pine Road, Auburn and was a member of the St Philip’s Anglican Church.
Kay enlisted on 19 July 1916 and embarked on the Port Nicholson on 8 November of that year, arriving in Devonport, UK on 10 January 1917. On 23 March 1917, Kay was taken on strength of the 4th Battalion and served in that unit for six months less two months in military hospitals suffering myocarditis and dropsy. On 6 October 1917, Kay received a gunshot wound to the chest and face and was taken back to the Colchester Military Hospital in the UK where he spent six months recovering.
Kay returned to his battalion in the 1st Australian Division on 25 April 1918 and served on until he was killed in action on 23 August 1918, during the Australian advance up the Somme valley: ‘Near Chugnes 23/8/18 in an advance on a ridge. He was shot thro’ the head by a bullet from an MG’.
Lance Corporal Kay is buried in the Heath Cemetery, Harbonnieres, the military cemetery in France containing the highest number of Australians (910 out of 1499 burials are Australian). An image of his headstone is shown below. Two other Auburn Memorial men, Private Wallace Sales and Private Harold Stevens are also buried in Heath Cemetery.