On the 1st July 1916, Knott was second in command, he was only 32 years old. At 7.30am Major Knott and his men advanced. At 7.28am three mines were detonated, and as a result the men were trapped between the enemy’s front and second positions. The enemy emerged from their dugouts and opened fire on Major Knott and his men. Over 700 men from this battalion were killed on the 1st July 1916 alone, including Major Knott who led the advance. Notably, Major Knott had been offered a safe position on a shipping board stationed in England but he had refused, wanting instead to fight at the front.

Major Knott’s brother, Captain Henry Basil Knott, died in 1915 at Poperinghe casualty station after being fatally wounded by a bullet to the head. Despite being killed almost a year apart, and being buried around 70 miles from each other, the brothers were eventually reunited. Their graves are side by side in Ypres Reservoir Cemetery, reading the inscription ‘Devoted In Life In Death Not Divided' which was chosen by the Knott famiBefore his death, Major Knott was decorated with the Distinguished Service Order medal in the Birthday Honours. Allegedly, the night before his death at the Somme, James dreamt of his brother Henry Basil and on the morning of his death, before the battle began, Knott wrote a letter to his parents which was to be opened after his death.

After the deaths of the Knott brothers in the First World War, their father, Sir James Knott, donated the bell tower at St George’s Memorial Church in Ypres, Belgium. The image to the left shows the memorial stone at St George’s Memorial Church, where the bell was to be rang in memory of the Knott brothers. The Knott brothers have also been remembered closer to home, in Fenham, Newcastle, at St James and St Basil’s Church. The tenor bell inside the church bares the inscription ‘We ring in memory of James and Basil Knott, God knows’.

The oldest of the Knott brothers, Thomas, was also feared dead during the war and this added to the devastation of Sir James Knott and his wife. However, Thomas was later returned home after being interned at a prisoner of war camp. 

Ashleigh Jackson