Major-General Pat Kay - Telegraph In November 1944 Kay was severely wounded when his Buffalo, a tracked landing vehicle, hit a mine during the bitterly contested landings on the strategically vital island of Walcheren at the mouth of the Scheldt. He was appointed MBE (military). Patrick Richard Kay was born on August 1 1921 at Blakeney, Norfolk, educated at Eastbourne College and commissioned in the Royal Marines in January 1940. After serving in the battlecruiser Renown, he joined 4 Commando Brigade in early 1944. Post-war, Kay served in Combined Operations Headquarters and attended the Army staff college at Camberley. In 1954 he joined 40 Commando in Malta and was deployed to Cyprus during the Eoka Emergency; two years later he took part in the Suez landings. Kay was an instructor at the Joint Services Amphibious Warfare Centre at Poole before taking up a testing desk job in the Admiralty . As a newly promoted lieutenant-colonel he commanded 43 Royal Marines Commando, and during a Nato exercise in northern Norway carried out a bold, outflanking move over the mountains involving a march of two days and a night, which he led at a cracking pace. After command of the Amphibious Training Unit, Royal Marines, at Poole, he embarked on a long stint as a "Whitehall warrior" during which his expertise at joint operations, his knowledge of the MoD and his year at the Imperial Defence College stood him in good stead . He was appointed CB in 1972. From 1974 to 1981 Kay was Director of Naval Security, taking over after the sudden death of his predecessor and several high-profile spy cases . Having reviewed and improved the Navy's internal security, he was the obvious candidate to become, in 1982, associate secretary of the Defence Press and Broadcasting Committee, assisting the full-time D-Notice secretary, who was responsible for making official requests to newspaper editors not to publish or broadcast items on specified subjects for reasons of national security. Kay succeeded to the principal appointment in 1986. He had to deal with several contentious matters including Northern Ireland; the sinking of the Belgrano; and the public disclosure of the identities of the heads of MI5 and of MI6. He gained widespread respect for his scrupulously independent advice. Pat Kay married, in 1944, Muriel Smith Austen; she died earlier this year, and he is survived by their three sons and one daughter. Major-General Pat Kay, born August 1 1921, died September 19 2013