A Knight's Tale

Harry Knight was born in 1893 to Harry & Phoebe Knight of Rushden.

Harry senior was a professional soldier who served Victoria's Empire on the North-West Frontier and in the Boer War. Harry junior, one of his six children, favoured a more peaceful career. Whilst still a pupil at the newly built Newton Road School he joined the Church Lads' Brigade, and later became a Sunday School teacher. He had ambitions to be a missionary.

	Bill Edwards, Modge Roberts, Sunny Colman & Harry Knight c1911 Left: Harry with the Church Lads Brigade drum

But father's influence was strong, and at 18 Harry went for a soldier. The occasion was recorded in a bible given to him at the time:

"Harry Knight. On joining the Army, in grateful remembrance of valuable help in the Church Lads' Brigade and Sunday School, from Evelyn F. Brady, curate (St. Mary's), Rushden, 14^th December 1911."

"Proverbs 3.6. - In all ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path."

Harry joined a cavalry regiment, the 12^th Royal Lancers, photos show him immaculate in full dress uniform with sword, and mounted with his section, holding their lances erect.

Harry is 3rd from the left on his horse right: in his Lancers dress uniform

The concept of horse soldiers armed with such antique weapons at this date may seem bizarre but all major powers had them. Warfare without the horse was unthinkable; many of the British Army's senior soldiers were cavalrymen who only ten years before had been fighting a well armed, hard riding foe in South Africa.

Mounted soldiers were an army's eyes and ears, a mobile shock force, which guarded the infantry's flanks and probed for weaknesses in the enemy that might enable them to break through and cause havoc behind his lines. The sword and lance were ideal weapons for this purpose, augmented now by newer ones, like the short Lee Enfield rifle, the machine gun and the 13-pounder field gun.

Thus armed, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was sent to France when war was declared on 4^th August, 1914. It numbered 100,000 men in five infantry and one cavalry divisions, divided into two Army Corps. The cavalry comprised four brigades of three regiments each; a regiment had three squadrons of four troops each; and a troop had four seven- man sections. In support were two brigades of horse-drawn artillery, field ambulances, engineer and signal squadrons and transport. The whole division's strength was 9,269 officers and men and 9,815 horses.

The BEF's commander was Field Marshall Sir John French, a 64 year-old cavalryman and Boer War veteran. His Corps commanders, both Scots, were Lieutenant- General Douglas Haig, 1^st Corps, and Major- General Sir John Grierson, 2^nd Corps. The 5th Cavalry Brigade, of which the 12^th Lancers formed a part, were commanded by Brigadier- General Sir Francis Chetwode,

Mobilising, equipping and transporting all these men and horses to France was accomplished in secrecy with speed and efficiency. They sailed from ports in Ireland or Southampton, landing mostly at Le Havre, and thence by rail to the BEF's selected advance base at Maubeuge, a fortified French town on the River Sombre, close to the Belgian border. By the 20^th August the concentration was almost complete.

On the 22^nd August the BEF was positioned on a line running from Mons to Conde, in Belgium, ready to advance in conjunction with the French forces to right and left against the First German Army, one of five, a million men facing the Allies.

But the French did not arrive on the left leaving the British flank exposed. A powerful German force thrust between the British right and the French 5^th Army, which gave way and began to retreat. The BEF was now in danger of encirclement, Believing that the French would return, the British dug in, their practised rifle fire inflicting heavy casualties on the Germans whose ranks included patriotic young students.

On the afternoon of the 24^th August when it was clear that the French would not be coming back, the BEF withdrew to prepared positions. Unable to hold them in the face of superior firepower, they began to retreat southwards in a series of rearguard actions, hampered by columns of pitiful refugees and convoys of French wounded in rough, open carts. The retreat from Mons would achieve infamy in British folklore.

Friday, 28^th August was very hot. Mid-day found the 12^th Lancers in reserve, resting at the village of Moy on the left bank of the Oise. They had watered their horses, unsaddled and fed them, and were relaxing in the shade. Chetwode's 5^th Cavalry Brigade, which included the Scots Greys and the 20^th Hussars, was deployed around the Moy to Cerizy road to intercept the German 2^nd Army's Guard Cavalry Division, led by the 2^nd Guard Dragoons (Queen Victoria's Own). This renowned regiment's name shows how close were the ties between British and German monarchies and their armies, and they included personal friendships between officers.

The Germans were attempting to exploit a wide gap separating the BEFs 1^st and 2^nd Corps. By early afternoon they had arrived and were in action against the Scots Greys. Lt. Col. Wormald, commanding the 12^th Lancers, ordered them to saddle up, and went forward with a small party from RHQ to investigate the sound of firing, Capt J.C.J. Michell, C Squadron, followed, with the machine gun section close behind.

The terrain was an irregular valley stretching towards Cerizy amidst wide fields of cut corn in stooks and sugar beet, Michell's Lancers found two Squadrons of the Guard Dragoons firing at the Greys. Spotting a third squadron moving beside them, they opened fire with rifles and MG's causing the Germans to dismount in a beet field below Puisieux Farm. A section of J Battery, four guns, then galloped up to the south end of the valley and opened fire, driving off the Dragoons' horses.

Lt. Col. Wormald, under covering fire from A & B Squadrons, who had dismounted, now brought C Squadron forward at a walk up a steep gully that hid them from the Germans. Led to the top by the sound of firing, he ordered them into line, shouted "Gallop", "Charge", and as his trumpeter sounded the charge the Colonel, his Adjutant, Trumpet-Major and two orderlies, well to the fore, dashed over the summit. Taken completely by surprise, the Guard Dragoons had only seconds in which to loose off a few shots before they were overridden, cut-down, run-through or speared. A few tried to hide among the beet leaves but most stood to fight.

Twice more the Lancers rallied and charged, though by then there were few unwounded Germans left to surrender. The Scots Greys went after any who tried to hide in the corn stooks; they were given little quarter, A Sergeant of C squadron thought about ninety in all had been killed. British casualties had been light: four dead and six wounded.

These unlucky ones included Col Wormald, wounded when his horse was killed, Capt Michell, shot through the head, and Lance Corporal Harry Knight died of wounds.

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Wartime in Rushden 1938-1945