Budleigh Notables: K

 





Professor Harry KAY CBE, DSc (1919-2005) Professor of Psychology. He lived at 18 Coastguard Road. © Portrait of Harry Kay by East Devon artist Alan Cotton. 

* He was the founder in the 1960s of Sheffield University’s Social and Applied Psychology Unit, later to become the Institute of Work Psychology.

* He was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University of Exeter in 1973.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Kay_(psychologist)





Major Cyril KITCHIN DSO (1883-1944). Army officer, Middlesex Regiment.  He lived at ‘The Cottage’, West Hill.   This photo of him is in the collection of the Imperial War Museums   © IWM HU 123631

* During WW1 he fought at the Battle of Ypres with the 3rd Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment, being Mentioned in Depatches and awarded the Distinguished Service Order. His bravery on 23 April 1915 is on record: ‘The advance was carried out, for about 250 yards, by “rushes” over absolutely open country,’ wrote military historian Everard Wyrall. ‘The first line suffered very heavy losses. From the right front the Germans raked the line of the Middlesex men with five machine guns; two or three more guns swept the advance from the left front, where within three minutes practically everyone in that portion of the firing line was killed or wounded. Colonel Stephenson fell mortally wounded and, with the help of a few survivors, the Adjutant (Captain Kitchin) carried him back to a shell hole, about 150 yards from where he was hit. Here he died. A very great loss to the Regiment’. 

* Major Kitchin’s elder brother Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Harwood Kitchin, also followed a military career. He served with the Dorsetshire Regiment, ending up in retirement in Budleigh, where he lived not too far from Cyril at Min-y-don, on Westbourne Terrace. 

* His grave is in St Peter’s Burial Ground. His wife, Norah Ella Kitchin née Leach (1891-1984) survived him, eventually moving to 15, Otterbourne Court on Budleigh’s Coastguard Road.  

* Their son, Squadron Leader Peter James Robert Kitchin DFC (1917-42), was killed in action while serving with the Royal Air Force in 75 (NZ) Squadron.  

https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2021/01/ww2-75-12-march-1942-flying-with-kiwis.html





Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Harwood KITCHIN (d. 1936). Army officer in the Dorsetshire Regiment. He lived at ‘Min-y-don’, on Westbourne Terrace.

* His brother Major Cyril Kitchin DSO (1883-1944) lived at ‘The Cottage’, West Hill.

* He was buried in St Peter’s Burial Ground, Moor Lane  with his wife Zoe Henriette Kitchen (d.1937).

 





Squadron Leader Peter James Robert KITCHIN DFC (1917-42) was the son of Major Cyril Kitchin DSO (1883-1944) and Norah Ella Kitchin née Leach (1891-1984). He was killed in action while serving with the Royal Air Force in 75 (NZ) Squadron, and is listed on Budleigh Salterton War Memorial.   You can read about him at  https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2021/01/ww2-75-12-march-1942-flying-with-kiwis.html

 

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