Illinois born Red Cross nurse who served in the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I.

Kate Lewis Hay was born on September 2, 1892 and brought up in Springfield, Illinois. She was educated at Vassar and in the First World War she went to work in Naval Intelligence in Washington DC. Although the work was interesting in itself and she enjoyed it, her main aim at this point was to go to France as a nurse with the Red Cross. Since her brother, Philemon Lewis, was already serving in France, she had been prevented from doing so by a rule which decreed that young ladies whose brothers were serving in the forces there could not go out too. As soon as this was overturned, she went. After the Armistice she stayed on to help with reconstruction work finally returning to the US in the summer of 1919.

She had many friends and travelled extensively. In particular she enjoyed a long friendship with Vachel Lindsay, who wrote a poem for her. In 1927 she married Colonel Arthur Sidney Hay, DSO, a retired Indian Army officer, in England where she lived for the rest of her life. They settled in Fleet, Hampshire and her only child, Charles Hay was born on May 9, 1928. Her mother, Melissa Stout Lewis, made several extended visits there. When the Second World War broke out, she joined the WAAFs and was stationed at Beaulieu, Hampshire. During the war her husband, who was significantly older than she was, died of natural causes. When the war ended she decided to move to the New Forest and bought a house a few miles from Beaulieu in the village of Boldre. She led an active life there and amongst other things, founded the local Darby & Joan Club (for the elderly). She died on April 23, 1969 and is buried at the Church of St John the Baptist, Boldre.