KNIGHTS, Walter Nelson
| Service Number: | 3487 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 16 August 1915 |
| Last Rank: | Lance Corporal |
| Last Unit: | 52nd Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, 25 November 1891 |
| Home Town: | Hobart, Tasmania |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Farmer |
| Died: | Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, 17 November 1961, aged 69 years, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Cornelian Bay Cemetery and Crematorium, Tasmania |
| Memorials: | Hobart Roll of Honour |
World War 1 Service
| 16 Aug 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 3487, 12th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 10 Nov 1915: | Involvement Private, 3487, 12th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '10' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Ascanius embarkation_ship_number: A11 public_note: '' | |
| 10 Nov 1915: | Embarked Private, 3487, 12th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Ascanius, Melbourne | |
| 3 Mar 1916: | Transferred AIF WW1, Private, 52nd Infantry Battalion | |
| 21 Jul 1916: | Promoted AIF WW1, Lance Corporal, 52nd Infantry Battalion |
Help us honour Walter Nelson Knights's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Stephen Brooks
Soon after arriving in Egypt Walter Knights was transferred to the 52nd Battalion which was just being formed and promoted to Lance Corporal a few months later. On the Western Front the 52nd Battalion took part in a major assault on the Mouquet Farm position, the last big attack made by the Australians in the Pozieres battle.
It featured desperately hard fighting, amid a storm of shell fire and a maze of shell holes, with the Australians clinging to shattered German trenches in and around Mouquet Farm.
Knights was right in the thick of the fighting and was recommended for a Military Medal, “On morning of 3rd September, 1916, he worked a Lewis gun with great daring. The Germans counter attacked onto our barricade with bombs along the trench early on morning of 3rd September, 1916, during which time Lance Corporal KNIGHTS kept up a sweeping fire preventing them from leaving the trench, and working at our barricade from shell holes. He greatly assisted other Lewis guns in keeping down snipers in German communication trenches on morning of 3rd September, 1916, and after they had shot several of our snipers beside his gun, he continued to work it, gaining superiority of fire. He was eventually wounded.”
Knights was evacuated to England wounded, suffering from a gunshot wound to the hand and severe shell shock. He spent over 6 months in England recovering and was sent to the 69th Battalion, part of a proposed Sixth Division of the AIF which never eventuated. He was presented with his Military Medal by the King on 25 July 1917.
He returned to France during March 1918 and returned to Australia over 12 months later. Walter was married in Hobart during 1921.
His son, 30159 Flight Sergeant Walter William Nelson Knights, Royal Australian Air Force, was killed in action during WW2 when the Lancaster in which he was a crew member, crashed with no survivors in 1943.
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