General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...

Sir William Thomas Knollys (1 August 1797 – 23 June 1883) was a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

officer who reached high office in the 1860s. William Thomas Knollys, Vanity Fair, 1877-08-25

Grave of Sir William Knollys in Highgate Cemetery

Military career

Born into the

Knollys family Knollys, Knolles or Knowles (), the name of an English family descended from Sir Thomas Knollys (died 1435), Lord Mayor of London, possibly a kinsman of the celebrated general Sir Robert Knolles. The next distinguished member of the family was Sir ...

, he was the son of General William Woods Knollys and Charlotte Martha Blackwell.Sir William Knollys at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
/ref> He was educated at

Harrow School (The Faithful Dispensation of the Gifts of God) , established = (Royal Charter) , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school , religion = Church of E ...

and the

Royal Military Academy Sandhurst The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS or RMA Sandhurst), commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is one of several military academies of the United Kingdom and is the British Army's initial officer training centre. It is located in the town of ...

. He was styled Viscount Wallingford until 1813, when his father's claim to the Earldom of Banbury was rejected. Knollys was commissioned into the 3rd Foot Guards in 1813 and fought in the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain ...

later that year. In 1854 he was appointed

Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey The Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey is the representative of the British monarch in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a Crown dependency of the British Crown. The role of the Lieutenant Governor is to act as the ''de facto'' head of state in Guernsey ...

and then in 1855 he became the first General Officer Commanding Aldershot Division and was allocated the task of organising his troops into Divisions and

Brigade A brigade is a major tactical military formation that typically comprises three to six battalions plus supporting elements. It is roughly equivalent to an enlarged or reinforced regiment. Two or more brigades may constitute a division. Br ...

s. Having achieved this task he was made President of the Council of Military Education in 1861. He held the colonelcy of the

62nd (Wiltshire) Regiment of Foot The 62nd (Wiltshire) Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army, which was raised in 1756 and saw service through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 99th (Lanarkshire) ...

from 1858 until its amalgamation into the Duke of Edinburgh's (Wiltshire Regiment) in 1881, after which he was Colonel of the 1st Battalion of the new Regiment. He transferred as Colonel to the

Scots Guards The Scots Guards (SG) is one of the five Foot Guards regiments of the British Army. Its origins are as the personal bodyguard of King Charles I of England and Scotland. Its lineage can be traced back to 1642, although it was only placed on the ...

in 1883 but died later the same year. In 1862 he was appointed Treasurer and Comptroller to the Household of Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII. He was sworn in as

Privy Counsellor The Privy Council (PC), officially His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, is a privy council, formal body of advisers to the British monarchy, sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises Politics of the United King ...

in 1872 and in 1877 made

Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod Black Rod (officially known as the Lady Usher of the Black Rod or, if male, the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod) is an official in the parliaments of several Commonwealth countries. The position originates in the House of Lords of the Parlia ...

. He was promoted to full

on 17 June 1866 and made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in 1867. After his death in 1883 at the House of Lords he was buried at

Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...

(east side).

Family

In 1830 he married Elizabeth St Aubyn, daughter of

Sir John St Aubyn, 5th Baronet Sir John St Aubyn, 5th Baronet (17 May 1758 – 10 August 1839), was a British Member of Parliament, High Sheriff of Cornwall and Grand Master of the Freemasons. Born in London, he succeeded to the baronetcy on 12 October 1772, at which point he ...

, and together they went on to have five sons and three daughters. One of his sons,

Francis Knollys, 1st Viscount Knollys Francis Knollys, 1st Viscount Knollys, (16 July 1837 – 15 August 1924) was a British courtier. He served as Private Secretary to the Sovereign from 1901 to 1913. Background and education Knollys was the son of Sir William Thomas Knol ...

(1837–1924), was private secretary to Edward VII and George V and created Baron Knollys in 1902 and Viscount Knollys in 1911. Another son, Sir Henry Knollys (1840–1930), became private secretary to King Edward's daughter Maud, Queen of Norway.KNOLLYS, Colonel Sir Henry', Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007

References

, - , - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Knollys, William Thomas 1797 births 1883 deaths People educated at Harrow School Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst British Army generals Scots Guards officers British Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars Ushers of the Black Rod Burials at Highgate Cemetery Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Grooms of the Stool