Sergeant Alfred Malcolm Knibbs
678508
Born 1885, Levenshulme, Manchester, England
Enlisted in 169th Battalion
Killed at Passchendale on Oct 29, 1917
Memorialized on Menin Gate, Ypres Belgium
The called it the Guilded Age. Cities were bursting with growth and optimism. It was a time for those lucky enough to be born in it to see out to their futures with unending and unyielding confidence. This era was defined by great wealth, obscene decadence, boundless opportunity and driven by rapid and constant change. Yet for some, for many, just living in one of these epicenters of industry, would prove hazardous to their health. This is the story of one such man. Alfred Knibbs grew up in a suburb of one of the centres of global industrialization. He lived in Levenshulme, a neighbourhood community of Manchester, England. It was within these such communities where the workers who fueled the industrial behemoth lived. At the age of 25, the young Mancurian would look out to the world and see opportunity…however that was only on clear days. In most days he would descend the steps from his residence and wade into a fog of putrid, suffocating soot-infused air. His walk to work would not be far from the portrayal of England in a Dicken’s novel…row upon row of two-story brick tenement style homes, blackened by the thick coal-stained air that cascaded down from the forest of smokestacks that lined the city skyline. For a smart energetic, enthusiastic youth like Alfred, one can imagine the opportunities that were presented to him…if he could survive, that is.
The Guilded Age was also defined by massive waves of immigration to Canada and the United States. At the age of 25, Alfred decided to say goodbye to the hum of Manchester and emigrate thousands of miles away across the pond. Alfred arrived in Canada in 1910 and found himself in the absolute opposite environ to his prior existence settling in the tree-lined neighbourhood of Trinity-Bellwoods of central Toronto. Employed as a salesman, he worked at Palmer & Co, a firm that manufactured machinery tools that would be used in the industrialization of this colonial capital city. Steady employment was followed by finding himself a young lady to call his wife and within 2 years the family had one new wee mouth to feed. A second was added within another. And then the tragic scene repeated itself over once again…new father, new immigrant to Canada, well groomed lawn and garden accompanied by fresh clean air and endless opportunities when the dark clouds of war gathered above another. The new husband of Annie and father responded to the call and on January 6th, 1916 enlisted with the 109th Regiment aka the 169th Battalion.
By the fall of 1916, now Company Sergeant Major Knibbs was stepping off the gangway of the SS Corsican joining the war effort back home in England. In early January 1917 he was transferred to the 116th and his transition from journeyman salesman to soldier would continue apace. Knibbs military service was accented by a series of promotion, reversions to lower ranks followed by a series of another promotions. His final rank was Sergeant which he was assigned to him just before the attack on Hill 70 in the summer of 17. His final action as a soldier occurred on the night of Oct 29th, 1917 in the heart of the battle of Passchendaele. Knibbs had been leading his men in the horrid sea of slop at Bellevue Heights when it became their time to be relieved and get themselves some rest. One by one Knibbs connected with the men of his platoon to signal their time to proceed to rear positions in the front. When he reached the last man at the last post, Knibbs was hit in the temple with the bullet from a snipers’ rifle. And just like that, another wife became a widow and another pair of children would grow up never knowing the man who was their father.
Remember him.