Roland WilfrId KNAGGS, PRIVATE 33775

Born: 4Q1896 at Whorlton
Son of: Son of Robert and Mary Jane Knaggs
Local address: Haughton Back Lane, Haughton-le-Skerne
Pre-war occupation: Telegraph messenger at General Post Office (GPO)
Father’s occupation: Market Gardener
Siblings: One brother, one sister, position in family: 3
Enlisted: Darlington
Regiment: Durham Light Infantry (DLI), Lincolnshire Regiment 33775, Labour Corps 23663
Died: Died of wounds, Monday 29 April 1918
Age: 21
Buried: Nine Elms British Cemetery, Grave Ref: XIV C 19, Poperinge, Belgium
Commemorated after the War:
War Memorial Hospital 1914-18
Brass Memorial Plaque 1914-18 in St Andrew’s Church, Haughton-le-Skerne
Roll of Honour 1914-18 Darlington Public Library

Roland Wilfred Knaggs was born in Whorlton, near Barnard Castle in 1896, the son of Robert Knaggs, a market gardener, and his wife Mary Jane. Robert and Mary Jane had six children but three had died by the time of the 1911 census, leaving Roland with an older brother Charles - a market gardener - and an older sister Ethel. In 1911, Wilfred aged 14 lived with his parents and brother Charles in Haughton Back Lane, Haughton-le-Skerne (now Whinfield Road) and worked as a GPO telegraph messenger boy.

Roland Knaggs married Annie May Warnes on 28 June 1917 at St Paul’s Church, Darlington. Before her marriage, Annie Warnes lived at 45 Shildon Street, Darlington and was 21, a year older than Roland. Her father, Samuel Warnes, was described on the marriage certificate as a millwright’s assistant. At the time of his marriage Roland was a private with the Durham Light Infantry (DLI).

Roland’s Service Record does not exist, but Soldiers who Died in the Great War records that he enlisted at Darlington, was with the Labour Corps at the time of his death and had formerly been with the Lincolnshire Regiment number 33775. It appears, therefore, that Roland initially joined the DLI, and sometime after June 1917 transferred to the Lincolnshire Regiment, and later to the Labour Corps. The Labour Corps was formed in 1917 and many soldiers who had been wounded or were otherwise below A1 fitness were transferred into it. The Labour Corps’ work included building and maintaining the huge network of roads and railways, moving ammunition and stores, loading and unloading ships and trains, and also burial duties.

Private Roland Knaggs died of wounds aged 21 on 29 April 1918 and is buried at Nine Elms British Cemetery, west of Poperinge in Flanders.

He is commemorated on the Brass Memorial Plaque in St Andrew’s Church, Haughton-le-Skerne, on the Roll of Honour in Darlington Public Library and at the War Memorial Hospital, Darlington. He was awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal.

Roland’s brother Charles Norman Knaggs, who was ten years older than Roland, served as a private in the Royal Fusiliers and was also transferred to the Labour Corps. He survived the war.

Roland Knaggs’ widow, Annie, remarried in 1924.