Catalogue description W Knott

Ms. diary, in 4 volumes (414pp in all), kept by a clerk in the Salvation Army, aged 17 in 1914, and covering his experiences as a stretcher bearer and later nursing orderly in the 32nd Field Ambulance (10th Division) during the final stages of their training in the United Kingdom (April-July 1915), their passage out to the Eastern Mediterranean (July 1915) and their subsequent service at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli (August-September 1915), in the retreat from Serbia (November-December 1915), in the Balkans (December 1915 - September 1917) and in the Palestine campaign until the unit was disbanded (September 1917 - April 1918); then at the base depot at Kantara, Egypt (May-August 1918), with the 165th Combined Field Ambulance (10th Division) in Palestine (September 1918 - March 1919) and at Kantara depot again (April 1919) prior to his passage home for demobilisation. The diary includes some interesting references to the higher command, religion in the Army and his conscientious objection to combatant service, morale and the incidence of self-inflicted wounds among the troops, the Army's use of native labour in Egypt and the 'soldiers' strikes' at Kantara in April 1919.

See IWM Photograph Archive, Refs Q.103695-698

Knott, William, d 1987

Unrestricted

• Dardanelles, Ottoman Empire
• Palestine
• Egypt
• Disaster relief
• Dardanelles campaign, 1915-1916
• First World War, 1914-1918
• Army personnel