William Lidstone McKnight

William Lidstone McKnight was born in Edmonton, Alberta, on 18 November 1918 and grew up in Calgary; he was of Canadian nationality and served in the Royal Air Force under service number 41937. Before the war he had spent three years in the Canadian Militia and was partway through medical studies at the University of Alberta when he left in early 1939 to accept a commission in the RAF. He joined No. 242 Squadron — an all-Canadian unit equipped with the Hawker Hurricane — in November 1939 and quickly established himself as an exceptionally aggressive fighter pilot, frequently flying as wingman to Squadron Leader Douglas Bader. During the Dunkirk evacuation in late May 1940 he destroyed several enemy aircraft in rapid succession, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross gazetted on 14 June 1940; he was subsequently awarded a Bar to the DFC, gazetted on 8 October 1940 (London Gazette, Issue 34964), with a citation noting that he had destroyed six further enemy aircraft in thirteen weeks and proved himself “a courageous and tenacious fighter.” He was killed in action on 12 January 1941 at the age of 22 when his Hurricane was lost over the English Channel during a low-level strafing sortie near Gravelines in northern France; his aircraft was never recovered and he has no known grave. He is commemorated on Panel 30 of the Runnymede Memorial in Surrey, and the city of Calgary later named McKnight Boulevard in his honour.