‘JollyVC’ lived up to his name 100 years since Post Office hero received highest gallantry award
THE thoughts of a forgotten hero only hours before the outstanding act that earned him the Victoria Cross do not bristle with bravery.
Instead, they reveal a man resigned to death.
Many years after the near-suicidal Great War battle of Wurst Farm Ridge, Ypres, Segeant Alfred Knight confessed: “I was thinking what could happen the next day – curious about the emotions of a condemned man the night before he takes the last walk.”
He overcame those fears to charge an enemy position at Wurst Farm in the battle on September 20, 1917 and single-handedly capture the stronghold. Against all odds, he survived and lived to the age 72.
Knight is among Birmingham’s bravest serving soldiers, but many are unaware of this amazing man.
That’s despite the fact he remains the only soldier from the Post Office Rifles – a fighting force made-up of postal workers – to receive the VC.
And despite the fact Royal Mail featured him on a set of stamps and his name immortalised through “Alfred Knight Way” in Park Central, Birmingham. A post box in Islington Row, near Five Ways, unveiled by granddaughter Anne Walsh, was also named after the local hero.
Terence Cuneo also celebrated the heroism of Knight in 1979 by producing a painting of him winning his Victoria Cross, which is hung at Inglis Barracks, Mill Hill in London.
Last week marked 100 years since Knight received his VC but the anniversary went near unnoticed.
His is not simply the tale of an outstanding soldier; it is also the story of a man who enjoyed immense success on Civvy Street.
Knight rose to senior wages inspector in the Ministry of Labour and awarded the British Empire Medal on June 7, 1951.
Born in Ladywood to Joseph and Annie on August 24, 1888, Knight was educated at St Phillip’s Grammar School, in Hagley Road Edgbaston and married Mabel Saunderson in May 1915.
Before the conflict, Knight was a clerical assistant with the Post Office.
It is known that he had transferred to Nottingham by the time war broke out in 1914. He enlisted in the 2/8 London Regiment of the Post Office Rifles on October 26, 1914, but it was not until January 1917 that the unit moved to France.
The battalion’s first taste of action was the second battle of Bullecourt in May, 1917.
It was here Knight first showed his mettle, bringing in wounded men under heavy fire. His actions earned a promotion to sergeant.
The military’s highest honour was to follow only four months later.
A battalion report painted a graphic picture: “In two instances, a sergeant rushed through our barrage and bayoneted the gunners who were causing casualties with their fire. Sergeant Knight rushed through our barrage to a post of 12 of the enemy, shot one, bayoneted two and scattered the rest, capturing the MG (machine gun), all unaided.” He wasn’t finished. Later, Knight realised the men of D Company were having trouble subduing an area known as Hubner Farm, so he, and a group of men, got stuck in. Their actions enabled D company to mount a decisive charge.
Knight described his survival on that day as a miracle. He said matter-of-factly: “I was fascinated by the pattern made all the way round me in the mud by the German bullets.
“All my kit was shot away almost as soon as we were in it. Everything went, in fact. Bullets rattled on my steel helmet – there were several significant dents and one hole in it, I found later.
“Part of a book was shot away in my pocket. A photograph-case and a cigarette-case probably saved my life from one bullet, which must have passed just under my arm-pit – quite close enough to be comfortable!”
Knight was decorated with the VC by King George V at Buckingham Palace on January 3, 1918 – the only Post Office Rifleman to achieve this honour.
His citation in the London Gazette stated: “For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty during the operations against the enemy positions.
“Sgt Knight did extraordinary good work and showed exceptional bravery and initiative when his platoon was attacking an enemy strong point and came under very heavy fire from an enemy machine gun. He rushed through our own barrage, bayonetted the enemy gunner and captured the position singlehanded.
“Later, 12 of the enemy with a machine gun were encountered in a shell hole. He again rushed forward by himself.”
The Gazette added: “Subsequent- ly during the attack on a fortified farm, when entangled up to his waist and seeing a number of the enemy firing on our troops, he immediately opened fire on them without waiting to extricate himself from the mud, killing six of the enemy.
“Again, noticing the company on his right flank being held up in their attack on another farm, Sgt Knight collected some men and took up a position on the flank of this farm, from where he brought a heavy fire to bear on the farm as a result of which the farm was captured.
“All the platoon officers of the company had become casualties before the first objective was reached and this gallant NCO took command of all the men of his own platoon and of the platoon without officers. His energy in consolidating and re-organising was untiring.
“His several single-handed actions showed exceptional bravery and saved a great number of casualties in the company.
“They were performed under heavy machine gun and rifle fire and without regard to personal risk and were the direct cause of the objectives being captured.”
The announcement of his VC turned him into a minor celebrity and when he returned to Nottingham in December, 1917, he became a magnet for the media. He was feted at civic receptions both in his native and adopted cities.
In Nottingham, civic heads presented him with an ornate silver tea service and a £100 War Bond, while postal workers clubbed together to buy him an inscribed marble clock.
The people of Birmingham gave him an illuminated address and another clock.
Knight jokingly dismissed press accounts of his VC action which, he claimed, made him out to be “a man from whom the bullets bounced”.
The Birmingham Post was so taken by his sense of humour at the time, it dubbed him “the Jolly VC”.
Knight soldiered on until after the Armistice and was commissioned as Second Lieutenant in The Sherwood Foresters on March 17, 1919. After being demobbed, he returned to his Post Office career and, in 1920, was transferred to the Ministry of Labour. From 1931 to 1937, he was manager of the Employment Exchange at York.
Knight was also awarded the Victory Medal and 1937 and 1953 Coronation Medals.
Knight died in Birmingham on December 4, 1960, aged 72. He is buried in Oscott Catholic Cemetery, New Oscott, Birmingham.
His VC is on display at the Postal Museum in central London.