Name
Frederick John Knight
Conflict
Second World War
Date of Death / Age
20/06/1943
27
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Squadron Leader
40304
Royal Air Force
12 Sqdn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
BERGEN-OP-ZOOM WAR CEMETERY
28. B. 8.
Netherlands
Headstone Inscription
WHAT WE KEEP IN MEMORY IS OURS UNCHANGED FOR EVER. HIS DUTY NOBLY DONE
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Boys’ Grammar School Memorial (WW2), Letchworth War Memorial
Biography
He was born in Westholm Green, Letchworth and attended Norton Road School in Letchworth before going to the Hitchin Grammar School for the period 1927-1933. At school he was tall (6ft 2ins) and an outstanding goalkeeper for the 1931 -1932 hockey first elevens. He had been a boy chorister at St. Michael's Church and after schooldays joined the Letchworth Operatic Society and the Letchworth Tennis Club.
He joined the RAF. in 1937 with the Service Number 40304 and during the war took part in at least forty operational flights over the continent, including the first major raid on Cologne in 1942. Later he was Chief Ground Instructor at his station. He was admired for his efficiency and enthusiasm and was a born leader. The padre at his station wrote that he was a good and able leader.
He was reported as missing after an operational flight over enemy territory while he was in 12 Squadron. He was in Lancaster III EE 195 GZ-B which took off from Wickenby near Lincoln at 23.09hrs for a raid on Cologne. The aircraft is presumed to have crashed in the sea off the coast of Holland. In October 1943 the Air Ministry were informed by an official German communiqué that his body had been recovered in July from the sea off the Dutch coast.
Four of the crew were buried in Dutch Cemeteries and three have no known grave and are commemorated on the Runnymede R.A.F. Memorial to the Missing at Egham in Surrey. Fred is buried in Bergen-op-Zoom Cemetery in Holland and a private inscription on the headstone reads "What we keep in memory is ours unchanged. For ever his duty nobly done".
His wife, whose maiden name was Phyllis Warner, was at the Hitchin Girls Grammar School at the same time that Fred was at the Boys Grammar School. They had many interests in common and were married in 1939. They lived in a cottage at Blackwell in the Cotswolds and they had a son, Michael. Fred's father, Mr E. J. Knight, lived at 209, Nevells Road, Letchworth.
A photograph of Fred appears in the Citizen Newspaper dated 9th July 1943.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines – ‘Hitchin’s Century of Sacrifice’, Hitchin Grammar School Chronicle,
Hitchin Grammar School Registers, Paul Johnson - local historian, ‘Bomber Command Losses’ by W.R. Chorley, Herts & Beds Express dated 16th Oct 1943, Citizen Newspaper dated 9th July 1943
