In Memory of Private WILFRED VICTOR KNIGHT 710, 1st Bn., Australian Infantry, A.I.F. who died between 27 April 1915 and 29 April 1915 Remembered with honour LONE PINE MEMORIAL Adapted from a story by Don Ramsey published in the Otago Daily Times on the 25 April 2008 http://216.67.224.201/~cemeteri/HCCTNZEdResources/WarMemorials/OBHSArchway &Trails.pdf Visitors to the old Waipori cemetery near Lake Mahinerangi in Otago’s hinterland will be intrigued to find a monument to the first New Zealander killed in the battle of Gallipoli, Private Wilfred Victor Knight (1903-06). Waipori was Private Knight’s birthplace, making the old cemetery an entirely appropriate place for a monument to his memory. While Private Knight is recorded as the first New Zealander reported killed in action at Gallipoli, he was serving with the Australian army, having left New Zealand to seek his fortune in Australia. He attended Waipori Public School and Lawrence District High School before spending four years at Otago Boys’. He left New Zealand when he was 21 and went to live in Junee, a small town in New South Wales, where he worked as a railway locomotive fireman, before enlisting on August 22, 1914. His regimental number was 710, and he was in 1st Battalion, F Company. The battalion was raised within a fortnight of the declaration of war and embarked just two months later on the 18th of October. The battalion had a brief stop in Albany, Western Australia, before heading to Egypt and eventually to the landing at Anzac Cove. The landing took place at 7.30am on April 25, 1915, as part of the second and third waves of soldiers to land on the beaches. .... What happened next is not completely clear, but it seems Private Knight was killed in the initial skirmishes. One record says he died of wounds sustained at Anzac Cove on April 27, 1915, with the date of his death recorded as that same day, while a second version of events, written by a soldier who knew him, says that he was killed outright on landing, which should have put the date of his death as April 25. Private Knight was only 25, and was one of nearly 5000 soldiers killed in the first two days of fighting. He was buried at sea. The ship on which he sailed to Gallipoli , the Transport A19 Africa, was torpedoed and sunk in the English Channel on February 12, 1917. Heres the other young man .... WW2 In Memory of Flight Sergeant ROBERT GEORGE COTTON 413818, Royal New Zealand Air Force who died age 25 on 31 August 1943 Son of Robert George Cotton and of Elfrida Mary Cotton (nee Knight), of Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. Remembered with honour CAMBRIDGE CITY CEMETERY
