Will O'Brien Posted 6 September , 2003 Share Posted 6 September , 2003 I am doing some research on a chap who has turned out to be a right tricky little customer to find info on. GF Knight MC appears on the Bow Brickhill Memorial (a memorial local to me) all indications are that this is Lieutenant Gerald Featherstone Knight MC. Local newspapers mention him as volunteering at the outbreak of the war & that he escaped from a German POW camp in 1917. I have seen the Gazette entry regarding his MC which was awarded in 1919 along with several other RFC/RAF Officers for escaping from captivity. Forum Member Bob Coulson has kindly provided the dates of his captivity. I have gleaned quite abit of info regarding his shooting down in 1916 when he was captured & the squadron he served with thanks to another forum (mention no names but I did see Lee & Jan had left their mark there ) What is he complaining about I here you say - Thats a wonderful amount of info...........& indeed it is. However Lieutenant Knight appears reluctant to appear on any other offical documents. I can find no record of a date or place of birth. (have tried several methods to find this (1901 census, freebmd website, parish registers etc.) Strangely neither can I find a date of death. He does not appear on the CWGC register so it is my guess he died after the cut off date. No locally obtained info has been forthcoming (I even looked at each headstone in the local cemetery to see if he had been buried there). All I know is that someone thought it appropriate to list him on the local memorial. Can any kind Pal give me a gentle prod in the right direction as to where to dig next. Will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raster Scanning Posted 6 September , 2003 Share Posted 6 September , 2003 Will. Did you know Knight wrote an autobiography entitled " Brother Bosch: An Airmans Escape from Germany" ? It was published by Heinman in 1919 and the IWM department of printed books has a copy. See here I see that he was listed as being in the Royal West Surrey Rgt when he was awarded the MC, many officers from infantry battalions were attached to the airforce. See Here Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christine liava'a Posted 6 September , 2003 Share Posted 6 September , 2003 Many of you may be unaware of the immense amount of information about people that is available or procurable on genealogical sites There are two massive sites- Rootsweb/ Ancestry and Genforum which between them probably cover most surnames in the Western world. As well there is the old International Genealogical Index of the Mormon Church, nowFamilysearch They contain query pages, mailing lists, family trees etc The Familysearch site also has a section for the Genealogical library, which lists all the films available for names, areas, topics etc, which can be ordered to Family History Centres worldwide For this man I have found Knight Surname board which also mentions a Knight genealogy webring And Knight Genforum If you search either or both of these you might find an entry about him; or you can ask for yourself! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue Light Posted 6 September , 2003 Share Posted 6 September , 2003 Will I don't know from the information you've given whether you've looked for a service record, but there are a couple of Lieut. G. F. Knights that come up on a search of PROCAT, one in WO339/31053, and another in WO374/40091. There are lots of Knights with just the initial 'G', but I only saw these two with both initials, so could be worth a check. Regards - Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will O'Brien Posted 7 September , 2003 Author Share Posted 7 September , 2003 John - Thank you Thank you Thank you.......Oh & did I mention Thank you..... Absolutely amazing. As you might have guessed I had no idea Gerald Knight had written a book about his experiences. I shall be endeavouring to source a copy from somewhere. I'm surprised there wasn't more in the local newspapers about him as you would think he would be something of a local hero. (thought of enough to be added to the memorial at Bow Brickhill) - A bit of rechecking of the local newpaper archive is in order I think. Christine - Thanks very much for the links - Hopefully this may lead to something in the way of information. I will be posting there to see if I can glean anything. Sue - Thanks for the idea.........to be honest I had forgot about his service Will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Promenade Posted 8 September , 2003 Share Posted 8 September , 2003 Will, If you e-mail me I will put you in touch with someone who is able to answer all of your questions about Knight. Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will O'Brien Posted 8 September , 2003 Author Share Posted 8 September , 2003 Joe Have emailed you as requested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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