Henry Thomas Knox
Personal
Name: Henry Thomas (Harry) KNOX
Born: ~ Apr 1895, Wandsworth, London, England
Parents: Nathaniel & Florence Knox
Migrated to: Perth, Western Australia, 1911
Occupation: Clerk
Died: 5 November 1917, France, aged 22
Grave Reference: VIII. I. 105.
Military Record
Enlisted: 20 Oct 1916
Training: Blackboy Hill, Western Australia
First Appointment: 18th Reinforcements, 27th Battalion (2 Dec 1916)
Transferred: 28th Battalion (12 Jun 1917)
Regiment: Australian Imperial Force
Rank: Private
Service Number: 6344 (& 6334A)
Links
Cemetery Location on Google Maps
In Memoriam
Thomas Henry Knox (Harry) was one of my granduncles who died in the First World War. This page is not to glorify war but simply to honour a man whose life was cut short by the horror of war.
His personal war dossier shows that he had previously been rejected from military service on the grounds of “under height” but was accepted when he applied to enlist in 1916 aged 21y 5mo.
He received basic training at the Blackboy Hill [link 1, link 2] army camp, Western Australia before being deployed to the 18th Reinforcements, 27th Battalion of the Australian Infantry Force, departing 23 December 1916 on HMAS Berrima.
During 1917 he was transferred to England and France and proceeded to his unit in June. In Late July he was taken sick with Trench Fever and sent to hospital but recovered and in late August he returned to his unit in France.
Colour Patches of the 27th (left)and 28th Battalions, AIF.
On 29 October in Belgium he was wounded in action by poisonous gas [probably chlorine but possibly mustard gas]. He was taken by a Field Ambulance unit to the 3rd Canadian General Hospital but died a few days later on 5 November of broncho-pneumonia.
Medals Awarded:
His name listed on the State War Memorial, King’s Park, Perth, Western Australia.
Original Memorial Oak(?) Tree, originally 117M, now M97, on the Honour Avenue, May Drive, Kings Park, W.A (early 1920s)
Current Eucalypt Tree, originally 117M, now M97, on the May Drive Kings Park Honour Avenue (2001)
Plaque in front of the memorial tree.
Memorial Plaque given to next of kin (his mother)
