Name
Gustav Adolph Kaye
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
23/03/1918
35
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
293066
Black Watch (Royal Highlanders)
1st/7th (Fife) Bn. (Territorial)
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
MOEUVRES COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION
VI. C. 21.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Bushey Town Memorial
Pre War
Born on 8 May 1883, Gustav Adolph Kaye (previously Koenigsfeld) was the only son of Prussian parents, Gustav Emil Koenigsfeld (1839 -1911) and Helene Koenigsfeld (1850 - 1912).
His father had established himself in England as a merchant and commission agent and married Helene Dietrich on 15 September 1877. They both gained certificates of naturalisation. They were living at 65 Angell Road, Brixton, which was then in Surrey. Their two children, Gustav and Alice, were born in Brixton and Gustav Adolph was educated at Dulwich College.
At the 1881 Census Gustav Emil and Helen are living at 5 Angell Road, Lambeth with two servants; a cook and a housemaid. Gustav is aged 42 and trading as a General Merchant. Both Gustav and Helen were born in Prussia.
By the time of the 1901 Census, Gustav Emil and Helen Koenigsfeld were living at 143, Tulse Hill and their ages were given as 62 ad 50 years respectively. They still had two servants living at the property. The 1902 City and County Directory for London lists Gustav Emil with an address at 39 Moorgate Street, EC.
At the 1911 Census Gustav Emil and Helen were still living at 143, Tulse Hill, which is now recorded as a twelve-roomed house. Their two children Gustav and Alice are recorded as 27 and 26 years old respectively and Gustav Adolph is working as a commercial clerk.
In the spring of 1911, Alice married George Vasmer, a cocoa merchant of German origin, whose family owned ‘Caldecote’ in Hilfield Lane, Bushey Heath, Hertfordshire. George and Alice made their first home nearby at ‘Heimat’, Coldharbour Lane, Bushey, the German word for homeland.
Gustav Emil died in December 1911 and his wife died the following year. Gustav Adolph moved to 24 St James Court, Buckingham Gate and carried on business as a merchant at 60 Queen Victoria Street in the City of London.
On 2 October 1914, Gustav Adolph, like many residents of German origin, changed his name by deed poll and a public announcement was made in The London Gazette of 6 October 1914 that henceforth he would ‘utterly renounce, relinquish and abandon the surname Koenigsfeld’ and would be known as Gustav Adolph Kaye.
The 1915 City Directory for Chelsea, Pimlico and Belgravia lists Gustav Adolph Kaye with an address at 24 St James’s Court, Buckingham Gate.
Wartime Service
Gustav Adolph enlisted in Caxton Hall, Westminster, soon after war began as Private Kaye 293066 in the 3/4th Territorial Reserve Battalion, The Black Watch at Ripon. He was promoted to Lance Corporal and proceeded to France in June 1916. In December he was taken ill with enteric fever and double pneumonia and sent to the Base Hospital, Boulogne, where he lay dangerously ill until invalided home in June 1917. During convalescence he was in hospital at Norwich and later at Hunstanton.
On recovery he joined the 7th Battalion of his regiment in Ireland and returned to the front in September 1917. He died of wounds received at Bourlon Wood near Cambrai on 23 March 1918, aged 34. He was buried in Moeuvres Communal Cemetery Extension, grave number Vi. C. 21.
Through family inheritance, Gustav Kaye became a wealthy man. The National Probate Calendar for 1918 gives his address as 24 St James Court, Buckingham Gate, and grants probate on 3rd October for Effects of £32,664 18s 3d to George Henry Stockman, managing director, and Julius Cecil Day, accountant. He left money in his Will to charity aimed at relieving the distress after war amongst married women belonging to the Black Watch. Any surplus was to go to the Black Watch memorial Home at Dunalastair, Broughty Ferry. The charity ceased in 1996.
Alice and George Vasmer, whose permanent home became ‘Caldecote’, Bushey Heath, had Gustav’s name inscribed on the Bushey Memorial. He is also commemorated on his parents’ grave in West Norwood Cemetery, near the family home where he and Alice grew up.
Additional Information
Information provided with kind permission of Bushey First World War Commemoration Project – Please visit www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk.
Acknowledgments
Andrew Palmer
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild
