EDWIN HAY

Private Ralph Edwin Hay was born in Australia in 1884. Edwin, as he was known, had lived with his family in Union Street Papanui and like his brother Vernon worked as a plasterer. He married Gertrude Francis Beams in 1908 and they had four children - Angus Edwin (born May 1911), George Gifford (born September 1912), Olive Francis (born Christmas Eve 1913) and Beryl mary (born July 1916). Given this family situation, it is surprising that he enlisted or was conscripted. He embarked in Wellington for Glasgow in August 1917, and spent a short time at Sling Camp before being sent to France as a replacement for the Passchendaele losses. His front-line service was brief – a short four weeks – before he was killed in action in the abortive attempt to seize Polderhoek Chateau on 3 December 1917. He is commemorated on the New Zealand Memorial at the Buttes New British cemetery near Polygon Wood in Belgium.

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