Historical records matching Pte. Wilfred Victor Knight
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About Pte. Wilfred Victor Knight
Wilfred Victor Knight was born at Waipori in the Otago region of New Zealand's South Island on 6 April 1890. His parents were Fred William Knight and Mary Snell Knight (née Lean) who had married on 22 December 1884. Wilfred was educated at the Otago Boys' High School before working on the West Coast. He then went to Australia where he firstly worked as a miner and later a sheep farmer. Wilfred then became a conductor on the trams in Sydney, and passed an examination to become a tram driver. He was working as a railway fireman at the town of Junee in the Riverina region of New South Wales when World War I was declared. Wilfred was among the first to sign up with the 1st Brigade of the 1st Battalion of the Australian Imperial Force. During the Allies invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula on 25 April 1915, Wilfred was seriously wounded. He was admitted to the troopship 'Seang Choon' which was taking on some of the many wounded, but reported by Colonel Begg to be "totally unsuitable for carrying seriously wounded cases" and "seriously overcrowded" with "no operating room available" (as cited in Cohen, 2014). The whole situation at Gallipoli was later described by Pte Clarence Whitaker as "hell on earth" (Cohen). It is uncertain in these conditions what medical treatment that Wilfred would have received, if any. He died of his wounds on board the 'Seang Choon' between the 27th and 29th of April 1915 and was buried at sea. Wilfred is remembered on Panel 14 of the Lone Pine Memorial at Gallipoli in Çanakkale, Türkiye. He is reported to be the first New Zealand Casualty at Gallipoli notified to the New Zealand Government from Australia, and the first Railwayman from New South Wales, Australia, to be killed during World War I. His parents surely did not have any understanding of the catastrophe of Gallipoli or the barbaric senseless of World War I when his mother said, "Well, I have no regrets, because he died for a just cause, and if I had a dozen sons I would not object to every one of them going to fight for their King and country, and the flag of liberty’' (Hawera & Normanby Star, 14 May 1915), and his father said that "of course it grieved him to lose a son, but with him the safety of the Empire came first" and it was "the lot of any parent to lose those whom they held most dear" (Otago Daily Times, 3 May 1915). It must be remembered that the New Zealand population at the time was heavily influenced by First World War propaganda and the political indoctrination used to manipulate the beliefs, attitudes and actions of people - much the same as the New Zealand's part in the war has been mythologised since (bio by Debbie McCauley, 9 February 2024).
Sources
- Cenotaph: https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/record/...
- Cohen, Susan (2014). Medical Services in the First World War.
- Evening Star, Issue (20 July 1916, p. 6).
- Hawera & Normanby Star (14 May 1915, p. 4).
- Otago Daily Times (3 May 1915, p. 5).
- Political indoctrination through myth building: The New Zealand School Journal at the time of World War 1 https://www.nzcer.org.nz/nzcerpress/curriculum-matters/articles/pol...
- Press (4 May 1915).
- Stratford Evening Post (3 May 1915).
- Waipori Goldfields Charitable Trust https://waiporigold.org.nz/waipori-history/war-and-waipori/waipori-...
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Pte. Wilfred Victor Knight's Timeline
| 1890 |
April 6, 1890
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Waipori, Otago, South Island, New Zealand
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| 1915 |
April 27, 1915
Age 25
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Troopship, Seang Choon, Gallipoli, Çanakkale, Türkiye (Turkey)
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April 29, 1915
Age 25
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Lone Pine Memorial, [Panel 14.], (buried at sea), Gallipoli, Çanakkale, Türkiye (Turkey)
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