Able Seaman William Edward Knowles

On 9 February 1915 Able Seaman William Edward Knowles, a naval rating from Lyttelton, became the second New Zealand naval serviceman to die on active service in the First World War. The first was Able Seaman John Reardon, who was lost when the Royal Australian Navy submarine AE1 disappeared while on patrol near New Guinea in September 1914. Knowles was serving on HMS Philomel in the eastern Mediterranean when, on 8 February, he joined a landing party that was sent to investigate a mule caravan near Alexandretta (near the modern Turkish city of İskenderun). Find out more about the events surrounding Knowles' death here.