Lieutenant General Sir Charles Edmond Knox KCB

Order of the Bath

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...

 (28 February 1846 – 1 November 1938) was an Anglo-Irish

Anglo-Irish

Anglo-Irish was a term used primarily in the 19th and early 20th centuries to identify a privileged social class in Ireland, whose members were the descendants and successors of the Protestant Ascendancy, mostly belonging to the Church of Ireland, which was the established church of Ireland until...

 soldier of the British Army

British Army

The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

.

Early life

Knox was the son of Robert Knox

Robert Bent Knox

Robert Bent Knox DD LLD was the Church of Ireland Bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore from 1849 to 1886, and then Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland from 1886 until his death.-Early life:...

 DD

Doctor of Divinity

Doctor of Divinity is an advanced academic degree in divinity. Historically, it identified one who had been licensed by a university to teach Christian theology or related religious subjects....

, Archbishop of Armagh

Archbishop of Armagh (Church of Ireland)

The Anglican Archbishop of Armagh is the ecclesiastical head of the Church of Ireland, the metropolitan of the Province of Armagh and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Armagh....

, and of his wife Catherine Delia FitzGibbon, daughter of Thomas Gibbon FitzGibbon of Ballyseeda, County Limerick

County Limerick

It is thought that humans had established themselves in the Lough Gur area of the county as early as 3000 BC, while megalithic remains found at Duntryleague date back further to 3500 BC...

. He had two brothers and two sisters.
His great-grandfather, Thomas Knox (died 1818) of Dungannon Park

Dungannon

Dungannon is a medium-sized town in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is the third-largest town in the county and a population of 11,139 people was recorded in the 2001 Census. In August 2006, Dungannon won Ulster In Bloom's Best Kept Town Award for the fifth time...

, County Tyrone

County Tyrone

Historically Tyrone stretched as far north as Lough Foyle, and comprised part of modern day County Londonderry east of the River Foyle. The majority of County Londonderry was carved out of Tyrone between 1610-1620 when that land went to the Guilds of London to set up profit making schemes based on...

, had been created the first Viscount Northland.

He was educated at Eton

Eton College

Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....

 and Sandhurst

Royal Military Academy Sandhurst

The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst , commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is a British Army officer initial training centre located in Sandhurst, Berkshire, England...

.

Career

On 30 June 1865, Knox was commissioned into the British Army's 85th Regiment of Foot (Bucks Volunteers)

85th Regiment of Foot (Bucks Volunteers)

The 85th Regiment of Foot was a British Army line infantry regiment. During the Childers Reforms it was united with the 53rd Regiment of Foot to form the King's Shropshire Light Infantry.-Service history:...

 as an ensign

Ensign (rank)

Ensign is a junior rank of a commissioned officer in the armed forces of some countries, normally in the infantry or navy. As the junior officer in an infantry regiment was traditionally the carrier of the ensign flag, the rank itself acquired the name....

 by purchase

Sale of commissions

The sale of commissions was a common practice in most European armies where wealthy and noble officers purchased their rank. Only the Imperial Russian Army and the Prussian Army never used such a system. While initially shunned in the French Revolutionary Army, it was eventually revived in the...

. This later became the 2nd Battalion the King's Shropshire Light Infantry, and the whole of his regimental service was done in that corps. On 7 August 1867, he was promoted lieutenant

First Lieutenant

First lieutenant is a military rank and, in some forces, an appointment.The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations , but the majority of cases it is common for it to be sub-divided into a senior and junior rank...

 by purchase, on 11 June 1876, captain in a death vacancy, and on 1 July 1883, major. He served under Sir Charles Warren

Charles Warren

General Sir Charles Warren, GCMG, KCB, FRS was an officer in the British Royal Engineers. He was one of the earliest European archaeologists of Biblical Holy Land, and particularly of Temple Mount...

 in the Bechuanaland Expedition between 1884 and 1885 and while there raised and commanded the 4th Pioneer Regiment. The expedition did not see any fighting but due to his performance Knox was promoted a brevet

Brevet (military)

In many of the world's military establishments, brevet referred to a warrant authorizing a commissioned officer to hold a higher rank temporarily, but usually without receiving the pay of that higher rank except when actually serving in that role. An officer so promoted may be referred to as being...

 lieutenant colonel; brevet colonel on 9 December 1889; and he was promoted substantive lieutenant colonel on 11 February 1890, and was commanding officer

Commanding officer

The commanding officer is the officer in command of a military unit. Typically, the commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latitude to run the unit as he sees fit, within the bounds of military law...

 of a battalion of his regiment from then to 11 February 1894. After a period of half-pay, he went on to command the 32nd Regimental District (Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry

Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry

The Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry was an infantry regiment of the British Army from 1881 to 1959. Its lineage is continued today by The Rifles....

) based in Bodmin

Bodmin

Bodmin is a civil parish and major town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated in the centre of the county southwest of Bodmin Moor.The extent of the civil parish corresponds fairly closely to that of the town so is mostly urban in character...

, from 29 January 1895 to 29 November 1899, when he was promoted to temporary major general in command of an infantry brigade at Aldershot

Aldershot Garrison

Aldershot Garrison, also known as Aldershot Military Town, is a major garrison in South East England. Established in 1854, Aldershot has long been seen as the home of the British Army. The garrison was established when the war department brought a large area of land near to the village of...

.

Just five days later, with the outbreak of the Boer War

Second Boer War

The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...

, Knox was given command of 13th Infantry Brigade on the mobilisation of the 6th Division under General Kelly-Kenny

Thomas Kelly-Kenny

General Sir Thomas Kelly-Kenny GCB GCVO was a British Army general who served in the Second Boer War.-Military career:Kelly-Kenny was born on 27 February 1840 at Doolough Lodge, Treanmanagh near Mullagh in County Clare, Ireland. He was educated as a lay student at St. Patrick's College, Carlow, he...

, which formed part of the South African Field Force. There he was wounded at the Battle of Paardeberg

Battle of Paardeberg

The Battle of Paardeberg or Perdeberg was a major battle during the Second Anglo-Boer War. It was fought near Paardeberg Drift on the banks of the Modder River in the Orange Free State near Kimberley....

, thrice Mentioned in Despatches, promoted substantive major general, appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) on 19 April 1901, and awarded the King's South Africa Medal

King's South Africa Medal

The King's South Africa Medal was awarded to all troops who served in the Boer War in South Africa on or after 1 January 1902, and completed 18 months service before 1 June 1902. The medal was not issued alone but always with the Queen's South Africa Medal or QSA.The KSA was awarded only to those...

. He was given command of 4th Division

4th Infantry Division (United Kingdom)

The 4th Infantry Division is a regular British Army division with a long history having been present at the Peninsular War the Crimean War , the First World War , and during the Second World War.- Napoleonic Wars :...

, 2nd Army Corps on 30 October 1902, he was promoted lieutenant general on 6 December 1905, and relinquished command on 1 June 1906. He was offered the post of Governor of Bermuda

Governor of Bermuda

The Governor of Bermuda is the representative of the British monarch in the British overseas territory of Bermuda. The Governor is appointed by the monarch on the advice of the British government...

, but declined on the grounds that he was unmarried.

He was appointed Colonel of the Regiment of the King's Shropshire Light Infantry on 6 January 1907 and continued to hold the post until January 1921, though he retired from active service on 10 May 1909.

He was a member of the Naval and Military Club. In retirement he served as a company chairman.

Knox died on 1 November 1938, his obituary in Time

Time (magazine)

Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

magazine dated November 14, 1938, reads:
That in The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

noted: