Alec Tait-Knight, BA

• Matriculated: 1900

• Born: 8 November 1881

• Died: 27 October 1916

• Regiment: Durham Light Infantry

• Grave/Memorial: Grove Town Cemetery, Méaulte: I.B.16

Family background

b. 8 November 1881 as the older son of Mr Henry Knight (1855–1914) and Mrs Jane Harding Knight (née Tait) (1855–1916) (m. 1880). At the time of the 1881 Census they lived at 1 The Leighs, Charlton Road, Charlton next Woolwich (one servant); in 1891 they were visitors at the Central Exchange Hotel, Newcastle upon Tyne; in the 1901 Census the family lived at White House, High Street, Southgate (two servants); in 1911 they lived at 58 High Street, Marlow (one servant). Later they lived at The Shelleys, Marlow.

Parents and antecedents

Tait-Knight’s paternal grandfather, Anthony Knight (b. c.1810 in Scotland, d. 1879), was in 1861 a merchant living in Camberwell; in 1871 he was a woollen warehouseman, living in Lewisham. On his death he had a personal estate of under £4,000. Tait’s maternal grandfather, Andrew Tait (b. 1812 in Scotland, d. 1870), was also from Scotland but at the time of Tait-Knight’s mother’s birth he was a tailor employing 22 men in Chester. On his death his widow announced in local papers that she would continue the business. He had a personal estate of under £3,000. Tait-Knight’s father described himself as a merchant in flannel. He died in the City of London Hospital leaving around £300.

Siblings and their families

Tait-Knight’s brother was Maurice Henry Bickers Knight (1885–1959), who married (1909) Annie Wroth Adams (1881–1971]. Their two daughters were Monica Wroth Knight (1910–1997), later Chetwood after her marriage in 1939 to David Hugh Chetwood (1916–1997), one daughter; and Margaret Tait Knight (b. 1912).

Maurice Henry was educated at Mill Hill 1897–1901. At the time of the 1911 Census he was married and living in Marlow as a merchant trading in soft goods. His wife was the daughter of a London surgeon. He may have been in Canada at the outbreak of war and enlisted as a private in the 17th Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force, but was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 5th (Flintshire) Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, in April 1915 (London Gazette, no. 29,127, 13 April 1915, p. 3,592). He relinquished his commission on 11 May 1917 (LG, no. 30,060, 10 May 1917, p. 4,478).

Wife and child

Tait-Knight married Winifred Agnes (née Bloomer) (b. 1888) in 1913, and they had one son. They lived at The Shelleys, Marlow, Buckinghamshire, and after Tait-Knight’s death Winifred Agnes lived at Latchmore, Epping, Essex. Her later surname was Greener after her marriage in 1919 to Lieutenant Colin Ian Greener, RGA (1894–1949), of Heatherton Towers, Grahamstown, South Africa, and also The Dykeries, West Hill, Grahamstown, South Africa; he was a chartered accountant.

Tait-Kight’s wife was the daughter of a solicitor, Charles Edward Bloomer (b. 1859), who disappeared in 1906 leaving behind several forged documents and liabilities in excess of £70,000 (c.£5.5 million in 2005) owed by the firm Bloomer and Currie of 52 Doughty Street, London WC. His partner Cecil Edmund Currie denied all knowledge of these liabilities. Bloomer cleared his bank accounts, borrowed £160, and disappeared from his home at Pilgrim House, Brentwood, some time after 2 June 1905, the day he paid his servants a monthly wage in lieu of notice, locked the house and left it in the charge of the gardener. He left behind two sons and two daughters. At the time of the 1911 Census three of the children were living with their mother’s sister, a music teacher in Kensington. At the time of the 1901 Census her mother, Agnes Kate Aust, neé Tinson, was living with her brother.

Winifred Agnes probably died in South Africa, since her second husband was at the time of his death in 1949 a chartered accountant, and they lived in Kenton-on-sea in Cape Province. In July 1930, giving her address as 37 Emperor’s Court, Kensington, Middlesex, she applied for an education allowance for her and Tait-Knight’s son “in terms of the Memorandum issued for the information of the Widows of Officers”. It is not known whether this application was successful.

Winifred and Tait-Knight’s son, Alec Tait-Knight (1917–2000), was educated at St Andrew’s College, Grahamstown, RSA (1930–36), where he captained the shooting VIII and the 2nd XV, and he was elected a South African Rhodes Scholar in 1936. He then spent three years at Trinity College, Oxford, and graduated in 1939 with a 3rd class degree in Natural Sciences (Engineering) (MA 1954). He played rugby and athletics for his College, and being “a very fine shot” represented the University at Rifle Shooting (1937/38). Between September 1940 and May 1941 he served with the South African Air Force but was discharged in order to become the Chief Inspector of Materials (1941–43) and then the Senior Inspector of Materials (1943–45) in the Directorate of Technical Inspection, part of the South African Office of the Director General of War Supplies. After the war, he began by working for the engineering firm Fraser & Chalmers South Africa Ltd (1946–48). He then became the General Manager (Rhodesias) of Dowson and Dobson Engineering Ltd in Bulawayo (1949–64), and the firm’s Executive Director in the head office in Johannesburg (1964–67). Between 1967 and 1975 he held other senior positions in several South African engineering firms. He died in Bulawayo, leaving one son and one daughter.

Education and professional life

Tait-Knight was a Scholar at Mill Hill School from 1894 to1900, where he became a Monitor and played in both the First cricket XI and the First XV. Of his prowess as a cricketer the Mill Hill Magazine noted in 1899:

A very good bat and a very useful fast bowler. Though he developed some weak points in his batting, his bad luck for a long time was remarkable, and it was only quite late in the season [1898–99] that he did anything. If only he can get rid of one or two faults he should develop into a very fine bat next year. As a bowler he has a nice easy delivery, but wants to be more accurate.

Knight clearly took the admonishment to heart, for a year later the Magazine recorded that he had not only scored 134 against Mr Starr’s XI, thus setting a record for the School ground, but had the highest batting average of any of the members of the First XI (339 runs: 28∙5 per innings). As a result, its praise increased proportionately:

A good cricketer with a very considerable knowledge of the game. An excellent bat, strong in defence and in scoring-power. Rarely uses a forward stroke for purely defensive purposes, but scores freely by drives and forcing strokes on both sides of the wicket. First-rate field and useful change bowler.

In 1899, the Magazine said of his ability as a rugby player:

Showed much promise at half-back at the commencement of the season [1898–99], but owing to an accident did not quite come up to our expectations. Is very clever with his feet, but does not use his hands enough in stopping rushes. Makes good openings for his three-quarters, must pay more attention to tackling.

He matriculated at Magdalen on 15 October 1900 as a Wills’ Scholar and Exhibitioner, having been exempted from Responsions. He took the First Public Examination in Trinity Term 1901 and Hilary Term 1902, when he was awarded a 2nd in Classical Moderations. In Trinity Term 1904 he was awarded a 1st in Modern History and he took his BA on 10 November 1904. Being an “all-round athlete”, he was Captain of the College XV 1903/04 and played for the College’s cricket XI that called itself the “Incogniti”.

After graduating, he taught for a while at Rossall and University College School, Fleetwood, Lancashire, but left to have his voice trained and become a professional singer. On 16 February 1911, he gave a recital in the Queen’s Hall on which a very mixed report appeared in The Times: He has

a baritone voice of considerable range and power, which with further training ought to develop into something worth hearing. At present his incomplete control of his breath, his want of management in passing from one register to another, and his lack of restraint are too noticeable to warrant his continuing to sing in public without further study.

Later, however, Tait-Knight’s son gave his father’s profession as “schoolmaster”, indicating that he ultimately gave up his ambition to become a professional singer.

Military and war service

Tait-Knight began his military career by joining the 21st (Service) Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment that was raised in Islington on 18 May 1915 and was commissioned Second Lieutenant on 24 August 1915 (London Gazette, no. 29,287, 7 September 1915, p. 8,877). But he was soon transferred to the 22nd (Service) Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry and made a Lieutenant on probation on 18 September 1915 (confirmed 17 December 1915). The 22nd Battalion began to assemble in Durham on 11 October 1915 as a Pioneer Battalion, having been recruited largely from the local mining communities; at full strength it comprised 31 officers and 980 other ranks. It remained in Hartlepool until 22 March 1916 – five days before Tait-Knight was promoted Captain (LG, no. 29,542, 7 April 1917, p. 3,793) – and then trained at Catterick, a desolate place in Yorkshire, until mid-June 1916, when it went south and embarked at Southampton on 16 June. The Battalion arrived at Le Havre on the following day, where it was attached to the 19th (Western) Division as its Pioneer Battalion until 2 July 1916.

Although some companies were immediately separated off for individual tasks, the rest travelled towards the battlefields of the Somme and arrived in the trenches east of Albert on 23 June 1916. The Battalion stayed here until 30 June, when it withdrew 16 miles westwards to Hénencourt, about four miles west of Albert. During the first two days of the Battle of the Somme, three of its companies were always at the front, carrying up stores and bringing back casualties, while the others waited in reserve. But on 3 July it marched ten miles south-westwards to Allonville, just north-east of Amiens, where it stayed in billets until 6 July. On the following day it entrained and travelled first into Amiens and from there north-eastwards to Diéval, where it stayed in billets from 7 to 11 July, with the Battalion Headquarters first at Béthune and then at Beuvry, some two miles to the east.

From 15 to 28 July the Battalion worked for the Royal Engineers at Noyelles-lès-Vermelles, just to the south, clearing spoil from mines and taking casualties. After resting in for three days, it was used for various tasks from 31 July until 31 August, including draining trenches that were 18 inches to 2 feet deep in slush, and it spent September and the first half of October mainly constructing dug-outs and repairing trenches. During these two-and-a-half months the Battalion’s locations are difficult to determine, but at some juncture, probably in early October, it returned to the Somme battlefields, where, on 10 October 1916, it was temporarily transferred to XIV Corps, commanded by Major-General Frederick Lambart, the 10th Earl of Cavan (1865–1946). It spent the next ten days, the second half of the Battle of Transloy Ridge (1–18 October 1916), mainly repairing roads, and during this time Tait-Knight was on leave.

But by 20 October the Battalion was part of the 8th Division and positioned at Waterlot Farm, just to the south of Delville Wood, in preparation for the unsuccessful assault on the Ancre Heights by the 8th Division on 23 October. So on 22 October, ‘B’ Company was attached to 25th Brigade, ‘C’ Company to 23rd Brigade and ‘D’ Company to 24th Brigade, whilst ‘A’ Company was assigned to 8th Division’s Assistant Director of Medical Services, who sent them as stretcher-bearers to the 24th Field Hospital. The Battalion spent the first day of the Battle digging trenches and bringing back the wounded, and it lost three officers and 56 other ranks killed, wounded or missing. Tait-Knight was the Officer Commanding ‘B’ Company. He was wounded near Gueudecourt on 26 October 1916, about a mile away from where J.H. Harford would be killed out in no-man’s-land during the coming night: he died on 27 October 1916 of wounds received in action, aged 34.

Tait-Knight is buried in Grove Town Cemetery, Méaulte (a southern suburb of Albert), Grave I.B.16; the inscription is: “Greater love hath no man than this” (a shortened version of John 15:13; see also C.R. McClure, R.H.P. Howard, J.W. Lewis, G.B. Gilroy, R. Roberts, E.G. Worsley and J.F. Russell). After Tait-Knight’s death, his widow received a gratuity of £250 and a pension of £100 p.a., and on 3 December 1916 she wrote to President Warren:

We were always so very very happy together and day by day my loss seems more terrible as I realise what life means to me without him. […] I do strive to be brave as I feel he has been taken for greater & still finer work – He was a great, good & unselfish man & I am very proud of him.

He left £111 19s 5d.

Bibliography

For the books and archives referred to here in short form, refer to the Slow Dusk Bibliography and Archival Sources.

Printed sources:

[Anon.], ‘Cricket Characters: A.T. Knight’, The Mill Hill Magazine, 27, no. 2 (July 1899), pp. 56–7.

[Anon.], ‘Football Characters: A.T. Knight’, ibid., 27, no. 4 (December 1899), pp. 113–4.

[Anon.], ‘Characters of the Team: A.T. Knight’, ibid., 28, no. 2 (August 1900), pp. 56–7.

[Anon.], ‘A Missing Solicitor. Alleged Liabilities of £50,000’, Chelmsford Chronicle, no. 7,393 (22 June 1906), p. 5.

[Anon.], ‘Mr. Tait-Knight’s Recital’, The Times, no. 39,511 (17 February 1911), p. 11.

[Anon.], ‘Captain Alec Tait-Knight’ [obituary], The Times, no. 41,335 (27 November 1916), p. 7, col. E.

Moore (1975), pp. 26–30.

Sheen (1988), pp. 60–4, 82–4, 111–14, 139–50.

McCarthy (1998), pp. 45–6 and 125–6.

Archival sources: 

MCA: Ms. 876 (III), vol. 3.

MCA: PR 32/C/3/761–763 (President Warren’s War-Time Correspondence, Letters relating to Alec Tait-Knight [1914–16]).

OUA: UR 2/1/42.

WO95/1702.

WO339/35174.