Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War II (1939-1945)

Date of Enlistment

26/10/1939

Date of Discharge

24/06/1969

Place of Enlistment

Victoria Barracks

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

24/06/1912

Place of Birth

Canberra ACT

Address (at enlistment)

South Melbourne, Victoria (previously Duntroon ACT)

School(s) Attended

Telopea Park School

Occupation

Soldier

Next of Kin

Betty Knights (wife), South Melbourne, Victoria

Service Number

VX78, 376

Final Rank

Lieutenant Colonel

Final Unit

2/17 Battalion

Knights was the son of William James Knights who was on the military staff at the Royal Military College, Duntroon from July 1911. He himself entered RMC as a staff cadet in 1929 and graduated on 13 December 1932 when the college was based in Sydney. He married Betty Davis in Toorak, Victoria on 18 December 1937. Knights began active service in World War 2 in October 1939 and served in the North Africa campaign in 1940 and 1941. He was wounded by a booby trap near Tobruk on the night of 18 January 1941 while undertaking reconnaissance prior to the capture of the port a few days later.

Knights remained in the army after the war and was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1960. The same year he returned to Duntroon as Commandant of RMC, a role he filled until 1962. Knights retired from the army in June 1969. He was living in Empire Circuit, Yarralumla when he died on 4 August 1975.

WWII Nominal Roll http://www.ww2roll.gov.au
Colonel J.E. Lee, 'Duntroon: The Royal Military College of Australia 1911-1946', 1952
Chester Wilmot, 'Tobruk 1941', 1944 (p.19)
The Canberra Times - 5 August 1975
Monaro Pioneers Index - http://www.monaropioneers.com/pioneers.htm