Synopsis of the life of William John Kay
Compiled by Alan Kay

William John Kay, second son of William and Ann Kay (née Chapman), was born on December 31st 1898 at 3 Alexandra Buildings, Shoreditch, London.

His independent nature is shown from the stories of his childhood that he later told his children and which did not always work out to his advantage. One of his earliest enterprises, while still at school, was to deliver small quantities of tea for a wholesaler to small shopkeepers. He travelled far and wide in London, for which he was given his tram fare and because he always walked or ran with his deliveries he was able to pocket the money for himself. A further method of boosting his funds was provided by small quantities of tea escaping from the packaging, which William carefully gathered up and sold on! Another favourite story of William's was of the time that he found a gold sovereign. He told his mother he had found half-a-sovereign, which he duly gave her, much to her delight. His delight came when he and his younger brother George blew the rest on goodies and had a grand old time!

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Although William passed the examination, he did not attend grammar school. Many families could not afford to send their sons to grammar schools in those days. He had a number of jobs on leaving school before he enrolled at the Shoreditch recruiting office on December 16th 1916, at which time his address was given as 1 Crockers Buildings, Charles Square, Hoxton. William suffered from blindness in one eye; the result of an accident, which he believed was caused by soot getting into his eye as a small child. The outcome of this prevented him from being passed A1 for the army because 'he would not be able to sight a rifle'. This may have been the saving of him, as he was attached to the Pioneer Corps and not sent to the trenches. He was injured, however; sustaining a hernia while unloading sacks of sugar in Glasgow docks . . . but they didn't award medals for this type of injury!

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After the war, William once again took up his involvement with the Leysian Mission in City Road of which he was an active member of the choir, the scout troop and the concert party as well as bible classes. The Kay family were well-known members of the Mission. It was here that he met his future wife Gladys Denton, whom he married on October 1st 1927. By this time William had joined a firm of umbrella manufacturers and following a period 'learning the trade' was employed as a travelling representative. Unfortunately, with the onset of the Depression, trade began to diminish and as each of his three children were born his income also diminished. At first it was by way of pay cuts and short time but finally his firm closed down altogether and he was out of work the very week that their third child was born. At this time the family lived in King's Square, off Goswell Road. A previous famous resident of the Square was 'the father of colour printing', George Baxter, who had exhibited in the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in 1851.

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With war looming once again, William decided that he would rather attempt to save life than to take it; and so on October 27th 1938 he was accepted for training into the Auxiliary Fire Service with the London Fire Brigade. On the commencement of hostilities he became a full-time fireman. He was stationed in London and following the evacuation of his family in September 1939 to Buckinghamshire, he and Gladys decided to rent a house in Bletchley and make a new home there. William served throughout the whole of the London Blitz and occasionally, when coming home on leave, missed his stop at Bletchley through falling asleep on the train. Although he was ribbed unmercifully, it was probably due to the many hours he spent on duty at that time which was the real cause of his exhaustion.

Shortly before the war ended he bought a small window-cleaning business to provide an income between being demobbed and obtaining permanent employment. Being on the wrong side of 45 and with many young men returning from the forces, work was scarce. On one occasion William considered buying a business that was for sale at Tilbury. He and his son Alan went to see what the prospects were. They were both shocked by the devastation that confronted them; the whole area was like a huge bombsite. It was sufficient to make William and Gladys settle in Bletchley permanently.

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At about the age of 50 he secured an insurance round for the Co-operative Insurance Society at Northampton. Unfortunately, his district lay on the North Bucks/South Northants border, six or seven miles from Bletchley and covering five or six scattered villages. It was a round that was intended to support only a single man; therefore William could not afford to run a car for his business. Consequently, he cycled upwards of thirty miles on some days before he got back home in the evening. Eventually he bought a small motorcycle, which made life easier for him.

Later, when the post for an Infants' School caretaker became vacant, he made another career change. There are many residents of Bletchley, who recall the time when as children at school in the 1960's, they would gather round Mr Kay's boiler room door and listen to the stories he would tell and the poems that he would recite to them. He was never happier than when entertaining others. He had a prodigious memory for verse and could quote poems that he had learnt at school more than half a century before. He was a member of the Evergreens concert party for many years after his retirement at 70; and at the age of 90 he won a local talent competition!

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William and Gladys celebrated their Golden Wedding in 1977 and their Diamond Wedding in October 1987. Gladys became a victim of Parkinson's disease when about 75 years of age and it fell on William to care for her for the next ten years or so. William was 91 when Gladys died and being quite worn down by then his children wondered whether he might soon join her; but as it was he seemed to experience a new lease of life. One of his greatest loves was the seaside, so whenever he could he would try to persuade members of his family to go with him, but if he was unable to do so he went on his own! He last went on holiday at 99 years of age.

Over sixty friends and relations, including his seven grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren, attended William's 100th birthday celebration, which was a very happy occasion. Among the countless goodwill messages was his telegram from the Queen.

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William had always nurtured three ambitions, the first was to attain his one-hundredth birthday; the second was to celebrate the millennium, when he would be 101 years old, and the third would be to have lived during three different centuries; he managed all three. However, at the end of 1999 following a bout of double pneumonia, he was unable to return to his bungalow where he was still living on his own, supported by his children and friends, and was accepted into Butlin House, the Printers' Retirement Home in Bletchley on discharge from hospital early in 2000. From the Home he was able to attend the christening of his 13th great-grandchild, Arwel, in May, before dying peacefully at the Home on October 31st 2000.

A suitable epitaph may well be contained in the address made by his eldest son, David, during William's centenary birthday celebration. He said that William, who claimed he felt nothing remarkable about his longevity, "was a remarkably, unremarkable man".

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