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Lieutenant Peter Austen Knight - photo from Mr Broddy

Name:
Peter Austen Knight
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Birth:
28 AUG 1916 Chawton House, Chawton, Hampshire, England
Father:
George Brook Knight
Mother:
Florence Madeline Burr
Married:
Alexandra Vivien Anne Struan-Robertson 20 JUL 1939
Children:
Death:
28 MAY 1940 Tournai, Hainault, Belgium, Killed In Action aged 23
Remarks:
Educated at Winchester
Lived at Chawton/ Jane Austen was his 3 x great Aunt.
He was a Lieutenant in the Royal Scots Fusiliers.
Killed during the German offensive in May 1940.

LIEUT P AUSTEN KNIGHT
A correspondent writes:-
Many Wykehamists and others will have learnt with deep sorrow of the death of Lieutenant Peter Austen Knight, now officially reported to have fallen in action near Hollebeke, in Belgium, on May 28 last year. He was a boy of outstanding gifts and character - a geat lover of literature and the arts, a not unskilful draughtsman, a pianist of real feeling, and a leading spirit in dramatic production. His highly sensitive nature was balanced by his equally high sense of loyalty and duty, a combination which made him a force among his contemporaries, not least in his capacity as head of his house at Winchester. Those who knew him best will associate him chiefly with his beautiful home at Chawton, the residence of his father George Brook Knight. There Jane Austen, his great-great-aunt, wrote some of her novels; and the memories of the place meant much to Peter. His easy friendships with the gardeners, woodsmen, and other folk of the village were characteristic of his frank and kindly nature. Not many months before his death he married Vivien, daughter of Major and Mrs Struan Robertson, of Edinburgh. A military career had always been Peter's ambition, and, after passing through Sandhurst, he joined his regiment, The Royal Scots Fusiliers, in 1937. With them he went out to France and took part in the advance into Belgium. He was last seen walking towards a house afterwards found to have contained German machine-gunners. He was with his great friend Ian Thompson (of the same regiment), who had been best man at his wedding. They both shared the same fate.
The Times, 21 Aug 1941.


Also See http://www.winchestercollegeatwar.com/archive/knight-peter-austen/

Mr Broddy via Ancestry: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/4414462/person/-1607381267/gallery?_phtarg=qdj90
Peter Austen Knight at Winchester in 1935

Gravestone


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