KNIGHTS-SMITH, PHILIP ARNOLD
Date of Death |
12 April 1918 |
Rank |
Lance Corporal |
Service Number |
GS/18330 |
Where born |
Brightstone, Isle of Wight |
Age at time of death |
21 |
Employment Before Joining up |
|
Address |
Vicarage, Church Street |
Awards |
|
Regiment |
Bedfordshire Yeomanry |
Unit |
|
Where Killed or died |
Vicarage, Uttoxeter |
Location of Grave or Memorial |
Uttoxeter Cemetery Grave New. I. 1977. |
His name is incorrectly recorded on the town war memorial as Philip Arnold Smith Knight.
His parents were the Rev. Leslie Knights Smith and Florence Margaret Smith, of Brewood Vicarage, Staffordshire.
He was serving and had already accepted a commission in the Garrison Artillery by July 1915.
At the time of his death he was serving with the Bedfordshire Yeomanry. His obituary says that he was the regiment's best shot and was an instructor in musketry and the Hotchkiss machine gun.
He had been accepted as a pilot in the RFC, but died from injuries received in a training accident when his horse fell and rolled over him, crushing his lungs. He received all the skilled treatment available and for a time there was a faint hope of his recovery.
They brought him back to Uttoxeter in December 1917, but he developed complications and gradually weakened. He died in the Vicarage in Uttoxeter, and is buried in the town cemetery.