The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (710) Private Wilfred Victor Knight, 1st Battalion, First World War

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Gerard Pratt, the story for this day was on (710) Private Wilfred Victor Knight, 1st Battalion, First World War.

710 Private Wilfred Victor Knight, 1st Battalion
DOW 27 April 1916
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 23 April 2015

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Wilfred Victor Knight of the 1st Infantry Battalion.

Wilfred Knight was born in 1890 in Waipori in Otago, New Zealand. By the time war broke out in Europe he had immigrated to Australia and was working as a fireman, feeding coal into the engine of steam locomotives. He had had some military experience in the Senior Cadets as a teenager, and enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force within weeks of the outbreak of war.

Knight was posted as a private to the 1st Infantry Battalion of the newly formed Australian Imperial Force. After a period of training, the 1st Battalion left Australia in October 1914 aboard the SS Afric. While en route to the war, a message was received ordering the contingent to “complete training at Cairo and proceed from there to the front”. From Egypt they would go to Gallipoli.

At 6.45 am on 25 April 1915 the 1st Battalion commenced landing at Anzac Cove, and records show that they finished the landing without loss. From the beach the whole battalion was thrown into the firing line to reinforce the 3rd Brigade, and worked independently of battalion headquarters for the next four days before being withdrawn. During this time, Private Knight was seriously wounded.

The exact details of his wounds were not recorded, but sometime between 27 and 29 April 1916, while being evacuated on board HMAT Seang Choon, Wilfred Knight died of his wounds.

Knight was the first reported death for New Zealand. On 1 May a cable was sent by the Australian government to Wellington, requesting that an Anglican clergyman be sent to the Knight family to inform them of the death of their son. At that time the only deaths reported were hospital cases, and so it is not possible to confirm whether or not he was the first New Zealander actually killed on Gallipoli.

However, the significance of his being the first report home was not lost on his father, who wrote a number of letters to make sure this was confirmed and permanently recorded.

Wilfred Knight was buried at sea from the Seang Choon by an army chaplain.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, along with more than 60,000 others from the First World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Private Wilfred Victor Knight, and all of those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.

Dr Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section

Sources:
1st Battalion War Diary, November 1914 and 25 April 1915, Australian War Memorial.

National Archives of Australia, Wilfred Victor Knight service record; correspondence; “The first New Zealand casualty”, p. 48.

“Monument to first New Zealander killed”, Otago Daily Times Saturday, 26 April 2008, p. 32.