D-Day veteran Ken Hay dies aged 101 after spending years educating kids about WW2

D-Day veteran Ken Hay dies aged 101 after spending years educating kids about WW2 Ken Hay, a Normandy veteran who was captured by the Nazis just weeks after D-Day and became a prisoner of war in Poland, has died aged 101. He spent years educating children about the war and was an ambassador for the British Normandy Memorial Normandy veteran Ken Hay, who survived being taken prisoner just weeks following D-Day and dedicated years to teaching children about the war, has passed away aged 101. His passing was confirmed on Sunday by the British Normandy Memorial, where he served as an ambassador. "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'. "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 with the 4th Dorset infantry regiment and landed at Courseulles-sur-Mer days following the Allied invasion of Normandy. He was seized during a night patrol on 7-8 July and was transported to Zabrze in Poland, where he was forced to work as a prisoner of war in a coal mine. Speaking in 2024 about being captured, Mr Hay recalled his initial 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 Russian forces drew closer, the captives were forced to march to a new site roughly 1,000 miles distant, a journey that claimed many lives. Throughout the three-month trek, Mr Hay recalled once "lay down to die" when the pain became unbearable, but two comrades returned for him and carried him with an "arm around each shoulder". They were ultimately freed by American forces and Mr Hay made it back to Britain, travelling through Reims, on 4 May 1945. Remembering his arrival at his mother's home 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." Following the conflict, he was awarded an MBE for services to the community and received the Legion d'Honneur, France's highest order of merit. Mr Hay frequently visited schools across Britain to recount his wartime experiences and field questions, stating he felt it was his "duty to pass it on". Earlier this year, he attended a memorial service at the General Montgomery monument in Colleville-Montgomery alongside fellow Second World War veteran Henry Rice as part of events marking the 82nd anniversary of D-Day. Reflecting on one of his visits to a school, Mr Hay recalled being asked by a 13-year-old girl how wars could be prevented. He explained: "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'. "If we could all do that, there'd be no wars."