Raymond Knight Goodsir

I whānau mai i te Birth registration of Raymond Aladdin Knight, born 6 October 1894, 1773/1894 WA

Public - Lee-Anne - Other relative - 31 January 2022 - Birth Registration, Military Records.

- I mate atu i te 10 Oct 1916

Nama Hōia: WWI 7/1471 AWMM
Ingoa kārangaranga: —
Te Ope o Tū / te peka: Army AWMM
Te tūnga whakamutunga: WW1 Gunner/Military AWMM New Zealand Field Artillery AWMM
Pakanga: World War I, 1914-1918 AWMM

Mātātuhi

Lay a poppy

Portrait of Raymond Knight Goodsir taken c1912 probably to mark the end of secondary school and entrance to Canterbury College. Image kindly provided by Lee-Anne Callow (February 2022). No Known Copyright Restrictions

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Kōrero taurongo

Raymond Goodsir was the son of Mrs. C. Goodsir, Bealey Avenue, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Information kindly provided by Lee-Anne Callow;
"October 6th 1916 was Raymond Knight Goodsir’s 22nd birthday, and sadly, it was also the day he was fatally wounded at the Battle of the Somme. Despite the efforts of everyone from the stretcher bearers to the staff at the No. 1 Canadian General Hospital, four days later the young Gallipoli veteran lost his final battle, and is buried in the Military Cemetery at Etaples, in France. He had gunshot wounds to his head, thigh and knee. His family waiting at home at 19 Bealey Avenue, Christchurch, must have desperately hoped that their birthday messages of love had reached him.

We don’t know why Raymond decided to volunteer on July 1st 1915. He was midway through his final year of an arts degree at Canterbury College (University of Canterbury), and he held a Gammack Scholarship. He played full-back for Varsity first grade rugby team, and he taught Sunday School, and had begun studying theology. Raymond was interested in history, having won an Exhibition in his second academic year, so perhaps the chance to see Egypt, together with a longing to travel, kindled by the move from his birthplace in Western Australia at the age of eight, influenced him. Or perhaps it was simply to enlist with all his mates, with The Star reporting on the rugby on June 5th, adding “Varsity are sending so many men with the reinforcements that they cannot continue in the competition”.

Grey-eyed Raymond had curly light brown hair which refused to sit smoothly, and he was stockily built. He had attended primary school in Addington (in Christchurch) and secondary school at both Palmerston North High School, and Christchurch Boys High School, and is memorialized with his fallen schoolmates at all three institutions, and at College House (Residential College). His mother, Clara Robinson Knight, had been widowed with two sons, Leslie Albert and Raymond Aladdin Knight, and had married NZ-born Percy Howard Goodsir in Kalgoorlie. They had two more children; their daughter born after they had returned to live in NZ. Ray adopted his stepfather’s name and became known as Raymond Knight Goodsir.

The Canterbury Mounted Rifles 6th Reinforcements embarked on August 14th 1915 with Raymond aboard HMNZT “Tofua”. By September 15 they had reached Port Suez, and were then sent by train to Zeitoun, near Cairo, for further training. The CMR at Gallipoli had been decimated, and the Reinforcements arriving at Mudros would have been welcomed replacements. A month later the troops were transferred to Gallipoli where they bivouacked at Waterfall Gully, relieving the Suffolk Yeomanry on the northern side of Aghyl Dere. Unknown to them the decision to evacuate the ANZACs had already been made, but there were still weeks of fighting the Turks and bitterly cold and snowy conditions to contend with. The remaining CMR were evacuated on the night of December 19th to Mudros. On December 26th they arrived back at the camp at Zeitoun, where the routine of training, now reunited with their horses, began again.

Raymond then transferred to the NZ Field Artillery 9th Battery on March 10th, 1916, and transferred again to the 11th Battery (3rd Brigade) on the 7th of April, thereby changing from Trooper to Gunner Goodsir. He became part of the newly formed New Zealand Division which by early April had been sent to France, first to Flanders for three months, and then on to the Battle of the Somme early in September. The NZ Division was to take part in the third major offensive and the conditions, and the numbers of casualties, were horrifying. The New Zealand History webpage describes the miserable time the gunners had, toiling over their pieces often being bombarded “while soaked, cold and hungry.”

Raymond was deeply mourned by his family in Christchurch, and his extended family in Western Australia - the Robinson, Seabrook, Hester and Knight families. His sacrifice is not forgotten." AWMM

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Raymond Knight Goodsir