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Auction: 22133 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 1044

A Great War M.S.M. pair awarded to Acting Sergeant Major A. Knight, Royal Flying Corps, a pioneering aviator who took Aero Certificate No. 60 in 1911

British War Medal 1914-20 (4999. S.M.1. A. Knight. R.F.C.); Army Meritorious Service Medal, G.V.R. (4999 A.S.Mjr: A. Knight. R.F.C.), very fine (2)

M.S.M. London Gazette 9 November 1916.

Archibald Knight - or Archie to his friends and comrades - was born on 21 October 1888 at Harefield, Gloucestershire and was a pioneer of British flying.

Knight took his Aviator's Licence, No. 60, on Valentine's Day 1911 at the Bristol Flying School, Brooklands. Soon afterwards he became an instructor at the Vickers School, and in 1914 joined the Royal Flying Corps, attaining the rank of Sergeant Major before being recalled to join Maxwell Muller in managing the Vickers works at Weybridge.

He was Works Manager there until he retired in 1936, but returned in 1939 to take charge of Wellington and Warwick repair shops.

The late Rex Pierson, Vickers' chief designer, said of him in a broadcast:

'Archie Knight was a first-class instructor who believed in kicking any nervousness out of all pupils. I well remember an uncomfortable moment he gave me when suddenly he would deliberately knock the joystick out of my hand. 'That,' he would say, 'is to impress you with the effectiveness of the controls.''

Knight died at Weybridge on 17 January 1960, aged 72.



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Sold for
£600

Starting price
£210