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Alfred Knox
Major-General Sir Alfred William Fortescue Knox CB (30 October 1870 – 9 March 1964) was an Ulster-Scots career officer in the British Army and later a Conservative Party politician.
Knox was born at Shimnah House in Newcastle, County Down, the son of Vesey Edmund Knox and Margaret Clarissa Garrett. Edmund Vesey Knox and Gen. Sir Harry Knox were his brothers. His great-grandfather was Hon. Vesey Knox, third son of Thomas Knox, 1st Viscount Northland of Dungannon, and brother of Thomas Knox, 1st Earl of Ranfurly (1754–1840); Maj.-Gen. Hon. John Knox (1758–1800), Governor of Jamaica; William Knox (1762–1831), Bishop of Derry; George Knox (1765–1827), MP for Dublin University; Charles Knox (1770–1825), Archdeacon of Armagh; and Edmund Knox (1772–1849), Bishop of Limerick.
He was educated at Saint Columba's College, Dublin.
Knox joined the British Army when he attended the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, from where he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Royal Irish Rifles on 2 May 1891, and was promoted to lieutenant on 18 November 1893. He was posted to British India where he joined the 5th Punjab Infantry, became a double company commander, and was promoted to captain on 10 July 1901. He was adjutant to the Southern Waziristan Militia, and as such took part in operations in Waziristan under Major-General Charles Egerton in summer 1902, for which he was mentioned in despatches.
In 1911, Knox was appointed the British Military Attaché in then Russian Empire. A fluent speaker of Russian, he became a liaison officer to the Imperial Russian Army during First World War. During the 1917 Bolshevik coup in Russia he observed the Bolsheviks' taking of the Winter Palace on 7 November (25 October Old Style) 1917.
He wrote:
The garrison of the Winter Palace originally consisted of about 2,000 all told, including detachments from junker and ensign schools, three squadrons of Cossacks, a company of volunteers and a company from the Women's Battalion. It had six guns and one armoured car, the crew of which, however, declared that it had only come "to guard the art treasures of the Palace and was otherwise neutral"!
The garrison had dwindled owing to desertions, for there were no provisions and it had been practically starved for two days. There was no strong man to take command and to enforce discipline. No one had any stomach for fighting; and some of the ensigns even borrowed great coats of soldier pattern from the women to enable them to escape unobserved.
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Alfred Knox
Major-General Sir Alfred William Fortescue Knox CB (30 October 1870 – 9 March 1964) was an Ulster-Scots career officer in the British Army and later a Conservative Party politician.
Knox was born at Shimnah House in Newcastle, County Down, the son of Vesey Edmund Knox and Margaret Clarissa Garrett. Edmund Vesey Knox and Gen. Sir Harry Knox were his brothers. His great-grandfather was Hon. Vesey Knox, third son of Thomas Knox, 1st Viscount Northland of Dungannon, and brother of Thomas Knox, 1st Earl of Ranfurly (1754–1840); Maj.-Gen. Hon. John Knox (1758–1800), Governor of Jamaica; William Knox (1762–1831), Bishop of Derry; George Knox (1765–1827), MP for Dublin University; Charles Knox (1770–1825), Archdeacon of Armagh; and Edmund Knox (1772–1849), Bishop of Limerick.
He was educated at Saint Columba's College, Dublin.
Knox joined the British Army when he attended the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, from where he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Royal Irish Rifles on 2 May 1891, and was promoted to lieutenant on 18 November 1893. He was posted to British India where he joined the 5th Punjab Infantry, became a double company commander, and was promoted to captain on 10 July 1901. He was adjutant to the Southern Waziristan Militia, and as such took part in operations in Waziristan under Major-General Charles Egerton in summer 1902, for which he was mentioned in despatches.
In 1911, Knox was appointed the British Military Attaché in then Russian Empire. A fluent speaker of Russian, he became a liaison officer to the Imperial Russian Army during First World War. During the 1917 Bolshevik coup in Russia he observed the Bolsheviks' taking of the Winter Palace on 7 November (25 October Old Style) 1917.
He wrote:
The garrison of the Winter Palace originally consisted of about 2,000 all told, including detachments from junker and ensign schools, three squadrons of Cossacks, a company of volunteers and a company from the Women's Battalion. It had six guns and one armoured car, the crew of which, however, declared that it had only come "to guard the art treasures of the Palace and was otherwise neutral"!
The garrison had dwindled owing to desertions, for there were no provisions and it had been practically starved for two days. There was no strong man to take command and to enforce discipline. No one had any stomach for fighting; and some of the ensigns even borrowed great coats of soldier pattern from the women to enable them to escape unobserved.