Tom Slater and Tom St. Amand
The First World War was a turning point in the evolution of human warfare.
New and more lethal weapons emerged, including tanks, flamethrowers, poison gas and tracer bullets, which caused unimagined carnage, killing thousands of men from a distance in trenches and muddy battlefields.
At the same time, a million horses were sent to fight in the war. These cavalry charges saw riders, swords held high, advancing at full speed toward enemies with wild-eyed mounts beneath them.
The latter was the world of Thomas Knowles, a Point Edward-born member of the Royal Canadian Dragoons. Knowles fought at the Battle of Moreuil Wood in 1918, what historians have called “the last great cavalry charge.”
Knowles was a popular guy with many friends in Point Edward, where he spent his boyhood days, and in Sarnia, where he lived as a young man.
He found a job at the Mooney Biscuit Company in Stratford, Ont., and when he enlisted in October 1915 the 24-year-old listed his occupation as a candy maker.
By November of the following year Lance Corporal Knowles had seen action in France, and in late March of 1918 the Canadian Cavalry Brigade was preparing to engage the Germans 20 kilometres south of Amiens.
That spring, the Germans had been able to advance until they occupied Moreuil Wood, on the riverbank of the Avre River. From here, the German 23rd Saxon Division could control the railway line between Amiens and Paris.
The Canadian Cavalry Brigade, comprising Lord Strathcona’s Horse and the Royal Canadian Dragoons, was tasked with confronting the Germans.
By that point in the war, mounted cavalry charges were of limited use against barbed wire, deep trenches, mechanized artillery and machine-guns. But on the morning of March 30 the battlefield opened up and the Canadians seized their chance.
It must have been unnerving for the Germans to see and hear the Canadian cavalry riding at them en masse, their heads lowered to their horses’ necks, their razor-sharp swords raised.
The Royal Canadian Dragoons encountered enemy fire at 9:30 a.m. and were forced to dismount. The Canadians charged into the woods on foot with speed and fury and routed an estimated 300 enemy troops.
One of the casualties was Lance Corporal Knowles, who was killed instantly when a bullet from an enemy rifle struck him just below the heart.
By the end of the day, the British and Canadian cavalry had cleared the woods, brought back prisoners, and captured enemy guns. The victory at the Battle of Moreuil Wood contributed to the halt of the German Spring Offensive.
John Knowles, now living on London Road, would later learn his son had been killed in action on March 30, 1918.
A local account spoke of the cavalry’s splendid achievement, but rued “the many empty saddles.” One of them had been occupied by a popular young man from Point Edward and Sarnia.
Twenty-seven year old Thomas Knowles has no known grave, but his name is engraved on both the Vimy Memorial and the Sarnia Cenotaph.