Diary a voice from WWI

[Antipodean Andy]

Diary a voice from First World War

Arthur Knight will drive more than 1,000 kilometres this week from Victoria to Calgary, all for the peace of mind of knowing his father's diary is in its rightful place.

Knight will walk into the Military Museums Friday morning and turn over an important piece of history not documented in textbooks. He will share the voice of a soldier who fought in the First World War.

"I value the diary tremendously, but I'm scared stiff it's going to get lost," said Knight.

Knight, 82, has held onto his father's diary for years, flipping through the pages and reading the horrific accounts of German troops murdering prisoners, lonely nights in the trenches of France and the loss of close friends.

Knight's father, Abel Brereton Knight, was born in England in 1883.

He ran away from home twice to join the army.

His parents protested the first time but let him go the second time.

Abel served with the British army during the Boer War before being shipped to India, where he worked as a teacher for 12 years. Considered the "black sheep" of the family after falling in love with a maid when he returned to England, his parents sent him to Canada as a "remittance man" and paid him to never return.

From there he joined the newly formed Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and was shipped to France almost immediately to serve under the Canadian flag for the first time.

"My father was very proud to be operating under the flag," said Knight from Victoria.

"He would talk about that a lot when I was a child."

Abel's entries over a six-month period are short and to the point. He wrote nearly every day.

"We're hiding behind breastworks a few yards behind the firing line. German airmen are very busy. They suspect our presence here but can't locate us. Whiz Bang day and night. One poor fellow's leg blown off last night," he writes on April 29, 1914.

His diary continues until May 3, when he inhaled chlorine gas after one of the hand grenades he was burying exploded, cutting through his arms and permanently blinding him.

"My father would show me the wounds," said Knight.

"It was as if you had scooped out a spoonful of flesh here and there on each arm and it had healed into a white splotch."

Abel has also been credited with forming the Overseas Veterans League to fight for benefits for returning soldiers. It would eventually become the No. 1 Branch of the Royal Canadian Legion in Calgary.

"This is about hearing the voice of a man who served in the trenches and spoke from the heart," said Sgt. Bruce Graham, archivist for the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry Regimental Museum.

"To have that kind of information is so important."

The Military Museums hold the second-largest collection of First World War archives in Canada behind the National Archives of Canada, said Graham.