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George Hodges KNOX CMG VD

KNOX

Date of birth17 December 1885
PlacePrahran, Victoria, Australia
ParentsThe Honourable William (MP) and Catherine Mary (nee McMurtrie) Knox
Date of death11 July 1960
PlaceAt home, Ferntree Gully, Victoria, Australia
Age74
Scotch Year(s)1898 to 1899

Service record and post-war life

George Knox was an orchardist and a captain in the 52nd Infantry Regiment of the militia at the outbreak of war in 1914. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 29 March 1915 aged 29 and was appointed Captain in the 23rd Battalion. Promoted to Major and Second in Command of the battalion on 1 April 1915, he embarked for overseas duty on 8 May 1915. The Commanding Officer of the battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Morton, was in poor health, exacerbated by the heat, and on 15 June George took temporary command. Like Morton, he struggled to make the men salute their officers. He also sought to make them restrain their ‘filthy and blasphemous language’, probably with even less hope of success.

Either just before or when the unit left for Gallipoli on 27 August 1915 he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel and Commanding Officer of the 23rd Battalion. The battalion history says that George was not a popular choice with officers, but may have been a more popular choice among the other ranks. After the Gallipoli campaign, on returning to Egypt he was hospitalised for nine days in January 1916 with a ‘severe debility’. He reached Marseille, France, in March. George went to a Field Ambulance with an arm injury on 2 May but stayed with the unit.

On 10 May George fell seriously ill with bronchitis and asthma. He was evacuated to England. The battalion history says he was evacuated to England on 12 May after a severe fall from his horse, but the battalion war diary says he was evacuated ‘sick’. The battalion received a message from him on 30 May, which reportedly saddened it: then ‘It is with feelings of the greatest disappointment that acting under the orders of the Medical authorities, I am unable to rejoin my Battalion for some time to come. I had no chance of saying ‘good-bye’ to you, but take this opportunity of wishing all comrades in the 23rd Battalion the best of good luck. My thoughts will always be with you and may Almighty God bless your arms at all times.’

He would never serve with the 23rd again. George was discharged in mid-June but was on a supernumerary list until November 1916, when he was put in charge of No. 1 Command Depot. This became a permanent position in March 1917. In December 1917 he was appointed CMG (Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George), an award for senior officers who render extraordinary or important service. George's recommendation, reproduced below, says he commanded the 23rd Battalion in Gallipoli and France, was invalided as a result of an accident (a point not substantiated in his service record but consistent with the battalion history story) and had ‘done excellent work’ as Commandant of No. 1 Command Depot. In March 1918 he applied to return to Australia on the grounds of ill-health and family business. He mentioned that one of his brothers had been killed (William Knox, also a Scotch Collegian), the other incapacitated (MacGregor) in the war. Each of these brothers won the Military Cross. George’s application, reproduced below, was approved and in April 1918 he was returned to Australia. His appointment was terminated in June 1918. He was Mentioned in Despatches in 1918 for his work as CO of the 23rd Battalion.

Between the wars, George served as an officer in the militia. From March 1921 he was lieutenant-colonel commanding the 48th Battalion, and the 52nd Battalion from 1922-27. In 1923 George was elected to the Ferntree Gully Shire and in 1927 became MLA for Upper Yarra for the Nationalists. A popular member, he served Upper Yarra until 1945, when he became MLA for Scoresby, which he represented until his death. In 1928 he followed his Old Boy father’s lead (in the Commonwealth parliament in 1901) in carrying a motion that the Legislative Assembly open its sittings with the Lord’s Prayer. In 1929 George was secretary to cabinet and served on a royal commission into the dairying industry. In December 1929 and from March to April 1935 he was an honorary minister.

During the Second World War, George was successively CO of the 5th Battalion (1939-40), Brigadier commanding the 2nd Infantry Brigade (1940-42) and Officer Commanding Queenscliff- Nepean Covering Forces (1942). He retired from the army in November 1942. From 1942 to 1947 George was an effective and impartial speaker of the house. He was knighted in 1945. The Shire of Knox was named after him in 1963. George died on 11 July 1960. He had married Kathleen Purves MacPherson (d. 1974) in 1909. They divorced in June 1919. George married Ada Victoria Harris (d. 1988) in 1921. He had two sons and a daughter.

Photographs and Documents:

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Lieutenant-Colonel George Knox and his intelligence officer, Lieutenant Hugh Campbell Macindoe, of the 23rd Battalion, in Gun Lane at Gallipoli. Both men are smoking cigarettes.

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George Knox is third from the right in this photograph of 23rd Battalion officers at Gallipoli behind Lone Pine in 1915.

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One of several entries in George Knox’s service file that shows he was evacuated in 1916 because of bronchitis. Other sources suggest it may have been due to an accident or an explosion.

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Successful recommendation for George Knox’s CMG.

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Copy of file relating to George Knox’s application to return to Australia.

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Here George Knox is said to be officiating at the burial of an Australian soldier, Private Robert William Fuhrstrom, who reportedly died in Tahiti en route to Australia in May 1918.

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This photograph, dated December 1919, reportedly shows Lieutenant-Colonel George Hodges Knox CMG, holding a lecture to Australians on board SS Borda near Cape Town and on the way to Australia. He was overseas in this period on special service. He was a tall man, admired for his kindness and integrity.

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Undated photograph of George Hodges Knox.

Sources:

  1. Austin, Ron, Forward Undeterred: The Hisory of the 23rd Battalion 1915-1918, Slouch Hat Publications, McCrae, 1998. Australian War Memorial – Honours and Awards; 23rd Battalion War Diary May 1916 - WM4 23/40/8 PART 1 - May 1916
  2. Browne, Geoff, 'Knox, Sir George Hodges (1885–1960)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/knox-sir-george-hodges-6992/text12153, published first in hardcopy 1983.
  3. Mishura Scotch Database
  4. National Archives of Australia – B884, V65899
  5. http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/knox-sir-george-hodges-6992
  6. Scotch Collegian 1918, 1919
  7. The AIF Project - https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=167850

Page last updated: 11 November 2015