McKnight, Lance Corporal Lloyd

Service highlights

  • Service number: A3772
  • Born: 25 December 1914, St. Marys
  • Work and community: Egg candler at Irwin Products Ltd, later a clerk with Superior Stores Ltd,
  • Enlisted: 27 February 1940, London
  • Unit: The Royal Canadian Regiment
  • Training: Regimental Depot at Wolseley Barracks
  • Overseas service: Served in England with the 1st Canadian Infantry Division, joined the battalion 10 July 1943, then deployed to Italy
  • Wounded: 8 December 1943 (slightly, remained with his unit), wounded again 18 December 1943
  • Died: 18 December 1943, at the Regimental Aid Post in Italy
  • Buried: Moro River Canadian War Cemetery
  • Remembered at home: World War II plaque on St. Marys Town Hall

A Life and Service Remembered

Lloyd Somerville McKnight was born in St. Marys on Christmas Day, 1914. He grew up in a town where people tended to know one another, and where a person’s work and reputation travelled quickly. After graduating from St. Marys Collegiate, he worked first as an egg candler with Irwin Products and later as a clerk with Superior Stores. He also stood out as a player on a local hockey team, the kind of everyday detail that tells you he was not only a uniform and a number, but a familiar face in a familiar place.

He enlisted for overseas service on 27 February 1940 with the Royal Canadian Regiment and trained at Wolseley Barracks in London. He spent a long stretch in England, serving with the 1st Canadian Infantry Division at the depot, waiting through the years when the war felt both urgent and distant at the same time. On 10 July 1943 he was sent overseas to the battalion, and later that year he went with the regiment into the Mediterranean theatre, landing in Sicily and then moving into Italy.

By December 1943, the fighting around Ortona was grinding and close. Early in the month, the German forces made a stand, and the 1st Division was tasked with taking the city. The Royal Canadian Regiment was ordered on 8 December to capture San Leonardo, a village a few kilometres south of Ortona. The attack was only partly successful, and two companies took heavy casualties. Lloyd was slightly wounded that day but was not evacuated, likely choosing to stay with his unit when it mattered most.

A few days later, on 13 December, he was appointed Lance Corporal. In the middle of that campaign, promotions could come quickly and for difficult reasons, because every loss created an immediate gap that had to be filled.

On 18 December, the regiment went back into action during an attempt to take the Ortona crossroads. The opening phase succeeded with few casualties, but when the Royal Canadian Regiment took its turn, the fighting turned brutal. The unit pressed forward against well hidden machine gun positions, with heavy losses and little ground gained. In the confusion and close range fighting that followed, Lloyd was wounded again. The specific wound was not recorded in the account, but it was serious enough that he died that night at the Regimental Aid Post. Word about his death reached his brother Jack who served close enough to visit his grave and send word to his family.

Lloyd left behind his wife, Edith Grover, and three children, Helen, Barbara Ann, and Ron. He was also survived by his father, Freeman McKnight. His mother, Bertha Havens McKnight, had died years earlier, in 1932. His family would continue to carry the weight of war after 1943 as well, including the later loss of his brother Jack in 1947 from war related causes. Lloyd’s burial at the Moro River Canadian War Cemetery places him among many others from that winter campaign, and his name on the St. Marys Town Hall plaque keeps him close to the town that shaped him.

Major battles and operations

  • Sicily and Italy campaign with the Royal Canadian Regiment, 1943
  • Ortona area operations, including the attack on San Leonardo, 8 December 1943
  • Ortona crossroads attack, 18 December 1943, wounded and died that night

Learn More

https://www.veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/640163
https://rcl236stmarys.ca/cenotaph/mcknight-jack-franklin/
The Fallen, Richard Holt, Lance Corporal LS McKnight, Pg119