Clifford Leslie Knight was the middle of three children born to William Edward and Lucy Minnie Knight (nee Gardner). He had one elder brother - Norman Frederick - and a younger sister, Muriel Amy.
William and Lucy married in Nottinghamshire in early 1895 and appear to have travelled about the country quite significantly. William himself came from Leicestershire, whilst Lucy came from Longley, Gloucestershire. The birthplaces of the children show that the couple lived in Leicestershire when eldest son Norman was born, and Worcestershire (Wythall) when Clifford and his sister Muriel were born.
In 1901, the family is quite young; Norman is four years old, and Clifford just three, whilst Muriel is only 7 months. The family live at 35 Chapel Green, King’s Norton (Worcestershire) and have one domestic servant; Ethel Emma Rae, who herself came from Reading. Somewhat unusually for the time, both of Clifford’s parents are listed as ‘Worker’ on the census; his father is a General Labourer, and his mother Lucy is a ‘Certificated Head School Mistress’; a good job for a woman at the turn of the century.
The Conisbrough and Denaby 100 Project
Clifford Leslie Knight
In 1911, the children are all still living at home, but home is now 1 Haigh Street, Bolsover. Ethel has left the employ of the Knights and been replaced by Ada Alice Aldridge. William is now a House Painter for the colliery, and Lucy is a Head Teacher for the Church of England. All three children – including Clifford who is now 13 - are at school.
Clifford enlisted to join the army in Chesterfield in November 1917 at the age of around 19. At the time of his death in 1918, the family were living at Mile End Villas, on Doncaster Road (the terraced houses which stand beside Kenny’s Fish and Chip Restaurant), and Lucy was employed at Station Road School. Clifford himself was an Assistant Master at Staveley Council School in Chesterfield. The newspaper report citing his death states that Norman was also serving, however without further information on his army career, it has proven impossible to trace his service or fate.
Clifford died on Monday, 7th October 1918 as a Private in C Company of the 41st Battalion of the Machine Gun Corps. At the time of his death, the battalion was located at Gheluvelt, a village around 8km to the east of Ypres. Unfortunately the battalion war diaries are quite brief and uninformative for that day, stating only;
“Fine. B Coy proceed to rest billets near D Coy.”
The diaries show that C Company (of which Clifford was part) moved to rest billets on the following day, the 8th of October, meaning that they were in the line on the 7th, most likely the front line as the normal movement was Rest, to Reserve, to Support, to Front line, back to Rest. To support this, D Company on the same day moved from Rest to Divisional Reserve.
Sadly, it’s not possible to identify exactly what killed Clifford, however the fact that he is buried in a dual grave with another man, Private C Berry, suggests that his death was possibly caused by a shell; men were often placed in multiple occupancy graves if it was for various reasons impossible to separate one man from another in death. The current grave at Aeroplane Cemetery is the second grave which Clifford and his companion have shared. Their remains were moved to Aeroplane Cemetery (via a process known as ‘concentration’ – moving graves from smaller satellite cemeteries into identified larger cemeteries for consolidation purposes) shortly after the war. When they were first buried at Aeroplane Cemetery, Clifford was recorded as an ‘Unknown British Soldier’. Later, by some means he was identified and his name put on the headstone. Clifford’s mother Lucy provided the epitaph for his headstone, which reads;
For his part, Clifford was awarded the British and Victory war medals.
Aeroplane Cemetery is very close to Ypres, and we visit Clifford's grave regularly. We laid his tribute card in August 2014.
Photo courtesy of Bygone Conisbrough Denaby keithsphotos.webs.com
“With Loved Ones Far Away, In Jesus’ Keeping”
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