Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War 1918 ‘Battle of the Sambre’ M.C. group of four awarded to Major E. H. S. Knight, Royal Fusiliers, attached 1/5th (Prince of Wales’s) Battalion, Devonshire Regiment

Military Cross, G.V.R., unnamed as issued; 1914-15 Star (2. Lieut. E. H. S. Knight. R. Fus.); British War and Victory Medals (Major E. H. S. Knight.) generally good very fine (4) £700-£900

M.C. London Gazette 10 December 1919:
‘For conspicuous gallantry and able leadership on the 4th November, 1918, in the attack on Louvignies. He led the leading line and, under severe machine-gun fire, set a fine example to his men. On reaching the objective he superintended the work of consolidation under heavy shell fire. He also took charge of another company of which the company commander had become a casualty.’

Ernest Haymen Sherwin Knight was born in 1893, and was the son of Henry Sherwin Knight and Lena Vincent Haymen. He initially served during the Great War with the Royal Fusiliers in the French theatre of war from November 1915. Knight advanced to Temporary Captain, and was serving attached to the 1/5th (Prince of Wales’s) Battalion, Devonshire Regiment at the time of the award of his M.C. (erroneously listed as 15th Battalion - a Home Service battalion). The Battalion were engaged in action at the attack on positions around the village of Louvignies, as part of the Battle of the Sambre, 4 November 1918.