At Crescent Heights High School, he quarterbacked the football team but was renowned for once crashing his father's car into a neighbour's fence while trying to impress a new girlfriend.

In 1939, after entering the medical school at the University of Alberta, McKnight continued his cockiness but was on the verge of expulsion when a British recruiting mission for the Royal Air Force arrived in Calgary.

Seeing a chance for adventure as well as leaving behind a turbulent romance with his girlfriend Marian, he enlisted as a prospective fighter pilot in February 1939 and sailed for England.

Commissioned in the Royal Air Force (RAF) and appointed acting pilot officer on probation (41937), 15 April 1939, McKnight began training at No.

As part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), McKnight and 242 Squadron began operations over France on 14 May, a detachment being based at French airfields.

In typical McKnight style, he commandeered a limousine that had been abandoned by a "brass hat" and carried on a romantic encounter with a Parisienne (whom he eventually tried to smuggle back to England in a transport).

Flying as the "tail-end Charlie," McKnight shouted a warning and wheeled into a steep climbing turn that brought him on the tail of one of the diving Bf 109s, which he shot down, his squadron's first kill over France.

On 21 May 242 Squadron pilots were withdrawn to Britain essentially to begin a seven days' leave which was abruptly cut short after 48 hours when was the retreating BEF and allied armies were pushed into Dunkirk.

As fierce fighting over Dunkirk took place, McKnight claimed a victory over a Bf 109 on 28 May but his Hurricane was hit, and he had to limp home with his oil and coolant systems shot up.

On 9 September, McKnight scored twice when enemy raiders were intercepted by a group of three squadrons that were coordinated into a single unit by Bader as part of his "Big Wing" plan.

While trying to split the escorting fighters from the bombers, McKnight's Hurricane (bearing his irreverent individual marking of a death's head skull and skeleton with a sickle) was hit and one aileron was shot away.

His final victory was over the Thames Estuary on 5 November 1940, McKnight disabled a Bf 109, pulling close and motioning for the enemy fighter pilot to lower his undercarriage in a sign of defeat.

Following is a list of victories: Flying Officer McKnight has no known grave; his name is inscribed on the Runnymede Memorial, Englefield Green, Egham, Surrey, United Kingdom.