Sergeant Alfred Knight was the only member of the Post Office Rifles to be awarded a Victoria Cross, the highest British award for gallantry. The BPMA are lucky to hold the Victoria Cross of this hero of the First World War in the collection, along with his other medals.

Early Life

Alfred Joseph Knight was born at Ladywood in Birmingham on 24 August 1888. Educated at St Phillips Grammar School, Edgbaston, he entered the Post Office as a Clerical Assistant in the North Midland Engineering District in 1909.

When the Post Office Engineering Department moved to Nottingham in 1912, Knight transferred there. He was working in Nottingham when war broke out in 1914. In 1915 he married Mabel Saunderson (they are pictured together on the left) and later they had three children together.

Post Office Rifles

Knight joined the 2^nd Battalion of the 8^th City of London Regiment (Post Office Rifles) in 1914. The 2nd Battalion initially served as a reserve regiment, supplying reinforcements for the 1^st Battalion but in January 1917 the battalion also moved to the front line in France.

The battalion first saw action in the Second Battle of Bullecourt in May 1917 and during this battle Knight distinguished himself in the field by bringing in wounded men under enemy fire and thus was promoted to Sergeant.

Knight was later awarded the Victoria Cross for 'most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty during the operations against the enemy positions' (London Gazette, 8 November 1917, reprinted in the Post Office Circular, 20 November 1917) at the Battle of Wurst Farm Ridge, Alberta Section, Ypres on 20 September 1917.

The report in the London Gazette goes on to describe how

'Sergeant 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, bayoneted the enemy gunner, and captured the position single-handed. . .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.'

Victoria Cross

Knight was decorated with the Victoria Cross at Buckingham Palace on 3 January 1918. The announcement of his VC attracted a fair amount of attention when he returned to Nottingham in December 1917.

At a civic reception he was presented with a silver tea service and £100 war bond by the city. His fellow postal workers also bought him an inscribed clock and the local Press saw him as quite a celebrity!

Knight's heroism was also celebrated in Birmingham where he was born and bred.  Here he was awarded an illuminated address and another clock at a civic reception in January 1918. The picture on the right shows Knight with the mayor of Birmingham.

Knight was always a modest man and his dismissal of accounts by the Press of his VC action led to him being nicknamed 'The Jolly VC'. Years later Knight spoke of his survival as a miracle and said that 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!' (VCs of the First World War, P172).

Knight soldiered on with the Post Office Rifles until after Armistice Day and was commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the Sherwood Foresters on 17 March 1919. Knight was also awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal for his part in the First World War.

After the war       

After the war, Knight returned to his Post Office career but in 1920 he transferred to the Ministry of Labour. When he retired in 1951, he was Senior Wages Inspector in the Midlands Section of the Ministry of Labour.

In the year of his retirement he was awarded an MBE (civil) for his services to the British Empire. He was also awarded medals on the coronation of both George VI and Elizabeth II and the BPMA are lucky to hold all of Knight's medals in the collection. Knight is pictured on the left wearing his medals.

Knight died in Birmingham on 4 December 1960, aged 72 and is buried in Oscott Catholic Cemetery, Birmingham.

In his memory, on 17 March 1979 an oil painting by Terence Cuneo depicting the actions that won Knight his VC was unveiled at Inglis Barracks, Mill Hill (which at the time was the home of the British Forces Post Office).

On 9 November 2006 a road on a new estate in Birmingham was named 'Alfred Knight Way' after the city's local hero.