*A British Army Regiment raised in Canada for the Second Canadian Contingent, the Second Canadian Mounted Rifles (2CMR) is not to be confused with the Second Battalion CMR of the First Contingent, the sister Battalion to the First CMR re-named the Royal Canadian Dragoons in August 1900, after which the second battalion was simply the CMR.
A Toronto man,Knisely's name is often mispelled as Kinsley. An authentic hero,while with the RCD at Leliefontein he saw that his pal Cpl Percy Price had lost his horse and was hiding behind a termite mound with Boers all around him. Knisely rode a long way under heavy fire, mounted Price behind him and took him to a safer place, being severely wounded while he did so. He was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) for his gallantry under fire. Returned home and remustered as a corporal in the 2 CMR, in early 1902 he was with Bruce Carruthers during the heroic Canadian rearguard action at Boschbult(Hart's River). Cutoff from the rest of Carruthers's troop during the fighting, Knisely and five troopers decided to make their way back whence the unit had come, to Klerksdorp. They rode all night with little rest and few rations, and on the second day ran into a party of boers. They faught till darkness, then escaped by leading their muzzled horses around the enemy, six miles in rain and darkness. The next day they built a shelter of rocks and defended it against 50 Boers till they ran out of ammunition, upon which Knisely and Tpr Day were killed.The four survivors were taken prisoner and stripped of their uniforms. When the Boers saw Kniseley's DCM and Queen's Medal ribbons on his tunic they allowed him to be buried with his tunic on. Turned loose, the four naked, exhausted Canadians reached Klerksdorp two days later.
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