Name
James Roadknight
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
12/10/1917
25
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lieutenant
858
Australian Infantry, A.I.F.
37th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 27
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Digswell House Australian Hospital Memorial, St John's Church, Digswell
Pre War
James Roadknight was born in Bairnsdale, Victoria, the son of James and Annie Roadnight of 11 Aaron Street, West Richmond, Victoria, later of Bairnsdale East, Victoria. He was employed as a State School Teacher.
Wartime Service
He had served in the Senior Cadets for 2 years and enlisted on 18 August 1914 as Corporal in the 8th Battalion, H Company. His unit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria on board Transport A24 Benalla on 19 October 1914. He saw war service in Egypt, Gallipoli and the Western Front. He was promoted to Company Quartermaster Sergeant on 28 April 1915 but admitted to 2nd Field Ambulance Camp, Mudros on 5 November 1915 with jaundice and transferred to No. 3 Australian General Hospital at Lemnos . He re-joined his Battalion at Mudros on 20 December 1915 and was evacuated from Gallipoli to Alexandria on 7 January 1916. He was promoted Temporary Regimental Quartermaster Sergeant on 25 March 1916 and the promotion was made permanent on 3 May 1916. The following month he left Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force and disembarked in Marseilles on 29 June 1916.
Being selected for a commission, he was sent to Balliol College, Oxford on 5 September 1916 for training. He was commissioned as 2nd Lt on 28 October 1916 and proceeded overseas to France on 7 December 1916 being taken on strength with the 37th Bn on 11 January 1917. He was promoted to 1st Lt on 22 May 1917.
He was wounded in action with a gun shot wound to his right shoulder and was admitted to 14th General Hospital, Wimereux on 10 June 1917. He was transferred to England and admitted to Grange Hospital, Holmwood with a severe wound, later being transferred to Cambridge Hospital, 6 July 1917 and to 5th Auxiliary Hospital (Digswell House) on 23 July 1917. He was discharged to Perham Downs on 3 September 1917 and went back to France on 14 September 1917, re-joining the 37th Bn on 20 September 1917.
He was killed in action on 2 October 1917 by shell fire, death being instantaneous. He was buried in a shell hole about 70 yards from a Pill Box North of Augustus Wood, between Ypres and Passchendaele, Belgium but his body was not recovered for burial or not identified and his name is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial at Ypres.
Additional Information
Brother: [803] Lt Walter ROADKNIGHT, 37th Bn, died of wounds, 11 August 1919.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
aif.adfa.edu.au
