The James Hay Memorial Plaque was gifted by the Kangaroo Valley community and placed in the Presbyterian Church in Kangaroo Valley. This was reported in the Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 26 February 1902. In 1930s the Presbyterian Church was demolished, and the timber used to construct, on the same site, the caretaker’s cottage for Osborne Park. The James Hay Memorial Plaque went missing.
It is now back in the valley and located in the memorial section of the Pioneer Village Museum. The plaque was found in Bellingen Museum, as reported by Win Palmer in the Kangaroo Valley Voice in March 2001.
James Thomas Hay (Jim) was the son of John T. Hay and Isabella J. Lumsden and was born in 1882.
Jim enlisted in the 2nd NSW Mounted Rifles (Trooper 3487) at the age of 19. He saw action overseas in South Africa under Major-General Fetherstonhaugh in Eastern Transvaal. He contracted enteric fever and would not go to the doctor, so the Captain had to take him to the medic himself. Pat Napier, also from Kangaroo Valley, wrote to Jim’s father “Jim had gotten over the enteric fever and come out to the camp, but before coming the doctor wanted Jim to go home, but Jim said he would sooner be out at the front. When he was well there was no one who enjoyed himself better”.
After returning to the front he soon fell sick again and ended up in Klerksdorp Hospital and subsequently transferred to Cape Town Hospital, where he died of pneumonia on 12 October 1901.
Make a visit to the Kangaroo Valley Pioneer Village Museum. There is a lot to see and walks to be had in the near 10ha of grounds. Bring your lunch and have a picnic. There are gas barbecues and sheltered tables.
Some of the museum’s smaller items are having a facelift, and then being prepared for NSW promotion material. With the trips to Nowra and the Highlands being a bit daunting nearby, you can enjoy an easy trip to have a fun time at Pioneer Village Museum.
Copies of the book “South Africa The Volunteers War” by Keith Paterson – “The Boys From Shoalhaven District At The War in South Africa 1899-1907” are obtainable from Nowra Museum.Peter Dumbrell
