Captain John Julius Jersey de Knoop

DE KNOOP, JOHN JULIUS JERSEY

Rank: Captain
Date of Death: 07/08/1916
Age: 40
Regiment/Service: Cheshire Yeomanry 1st/1st attd. 6th Coy. Imperial Camel Corps
Grave Reference: E. 59.
Cemetery: KANTARA WAR MEMORIAL CEMETERY
Additional Information: Son of the late Baron W. de Knoop and of Baroness de Knoop, of 31, Rutland Gate, London; husband of Evelyn de Knoop, of Tingewick House, Buckingham.
CWGC

Wounded in action in the spring of 1915. He took a bullet which removed the top of his first finger on his right hand at the Battle of Ypres.

Partner in De Jersey & Co. which was then owned by his father.

On 3rd March 1916 the 1st Battalion of the Cheshire Yeomanry set sail from Devonport, arriving in Alexandria on 15th March. From here, Jersey travelled to Wardar in North-East Egypt. He and thirty seven men joined the 6th Imperial Camel Corps in April 1916. He was promoted to Major.

The main assignment of the Imperial Camel Corps was to drive the pro-Turkish Senussi tribesmen back across the Sinai desert. Their first battle was the Battle of Romani on the 4th August 1916.

On 6th August, Jersey led his men towards Bir al Aweidiya. At about 1730 hours the four companies of the Imperial Camel Corps encountered enemy troops about one and a half miles from Bir al Aweidiya, of which eight Senussi prisoners were taken. The following day that the Camel Corps were positioned around three-quarters of a mile north of Aweidiya, and aimed to gain access to the town by flanking through the east. The London Gazette reported this operation as ‘very successful’, capturing 53 prisoners and driving the enemy out of several successive positions.

'Jersey' was killed in action on 7th August 1916 by a snipers bullet. He was remembered by Lieutenant-Colonel Verdin in his history of the Cheshire Yeomanry. At the Battle of Romani, Jersey risked his own life by walking across a ridge in plain view of the enemy in order to draw fire, to determine their location. He was shot in the arm yet ‘was quite unperturbed by the wound’ and continued leading his troops.

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