At the time the Prime Minister, on an official visit to Japan, pleaded against speculation and called for restraint.
But in among the deluge of Hutton Inquiry papers released this weekend was evidence of the Kelly family's additional trauma, even as they were preparing to bury him.
Letter to MoD from Dr Kelly's family solicitor (pdf)
Full documents are here.
The Kelly family lawyer wrote to the Treasury solicitor on August 7th, just after the funeral, about their distress, enclosing an Independent newspaper headline from August 4th, calling Dr Kelly a "Walter Mitty" fantasist.
They felt it was evidence of a government-backed smear campaign. The same article went on to say:
"MoD sources have also revealed that Dr Kelly was being investigated for his contacts with journalists long before the row over Mr Gilligan's broadcast began".
Solicitor Peter Jacobsen wrote: "If information of this nature is being disseminated, either formally or informally, I should like to know on whose authority this is being done.
And referring to Mr Blair's earlier call for "restraint" he pointed out: "...the various arms of Government appear, at least through the press, to be following a different course".
In fact, as the Hutton documents reveal, Ministry of Defence officials fended off the threat of Dr Kelly's arrest in a police investigation over an alleged breach of the Official Secrets Act, as part of their attempt to contain the row over the Iraq dossiers.
Most scrutiny has been paid to Dr Kelly's last appearances - before Commons select Committees - about the dossiers. What we now know is that in the intense discussions that went on between his bosses before he testified, the Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, tried to steer the questioning from both committees; given Dr Kelly's known doubts about some of the claims of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.
On the 11th July, Geoff Hoon wrote to Ann Taylor, chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee, saying: "I presume that Dr Kelly will be questioned only on those matters which are directly relevant to the claims made by Andrew Gilligan, and not on the wider issue of Iraqi WMD and the preparation of the Dossier. Dr Kelly was not involved in the process of drawing up the intelligence parts of the Dossier."
The focus now will be on the Prime Minister. Tony Blair is spending the Bank Holiday weekend at Chequers, being briefed by lawyers and No. 10 officials ahead of his appearance before the Hutton Inquiry next week.
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