1871 Sandringham, General William Knollys, Treasurer & Comptroller to the Prince of Wales, Fine three page letter, regarding the Prince of Wales Illness with Typhoid fever, dated December 21st, in the period when he was extremely ill at Sandringham, with the fever, addressed To The Prince of Wales, Masonic Lodge, Belfast. Lodge

In November 1871 Prince Albert Edward had been a guest at a house party in Scarborough thrown by Lord Londesborough, the town’s former MP and one of the founders of the local football club, in Londesborough Lodge in The Crescent – the lodge is in a fabulous location on the cliff with its gardens falling down towards the beach.

But, it was alleged, at the house party the prince had contracted typhoid which had killed one of his fellow guests, Lord Chesterfield, aged 40.

Albert, aged 30, was so badly affected he was taken to Sandringham, in Norfolk, where his mother, Queen Victoria, was told he would succumb imminently.

The Northern Echo, reported how in St George’s Church in Northgate, Darlington, the preacher prayed “that the young man, whom we do not hold in very high respect, now stretched on a bed of sickness at Sandringham, may be raised in thought, in character, and in spiritual life, that he may become, as was his father before him, an example of virtue and piety to the nation”.

This strongly worded prayer reflected the national mood. Albert spent his life gambling, hunting, spending and eating and more – he had just been implicated in a high society divorce case where he denied committing adultery. He had grown so large, he was nicknamed “Tum Tum”; he was booed at the races and in the streets, and republicanism was on the rise.

And now he was at death’s door, and he could take the reputation of Scarborough, which prided itself as a healthy resort, down with him, so the Darlington & Stockton newspaper reported on the town’s PR offensive

“With respect to the sanitary arrangements at Lord Londesborough’s residence,” said the paper, “an official report has been published stating that the drains both inside and out are in perfect condition and that no foul gases could be generated in them.”

Indeed, Scarborough must have been crawling with sanitary inspectors because the Lancet, the medical journal, had sent up experts of its own who had concluded that the sewers were so bad that a “faint and deadly influence might have pervaded the whole house, or burst out of the closet” used by the Prince himself.

“Lord Londesborough’s doctor, Mr George P Dale, FRCS, writes to say that in 20 years’ practice in Scarborough he has not seen 20 cases of typhoid fever,” said the D&S, rebutting the claims.

During January 1872 the prince was showing tentative signs of pulling through. He overcame the deadly infection and Prime Minister WE Gladstone seized the opportunity to orchestrate a publicity campaign on his behalf and organised a service of thanksgiving for him having survived the Scarborough typhoid on February 27, 1872 at St Paul’s Cathedral. As the prince drove through the streets to the cathedral, he was cheered by the grateful public.

The monarchy had wobbled, but it had pulled through, and nearly 30 years later, such was the longevity of his mother, the Prince of Wales became Edward VII.

General Sir William Thomas Knollys KCB PC (1 August 1797 – 23 June 1883) was a British Army officer who reached high office in the 1860s.

Military career

Born into the Knollys family, he was the son of General William Woods Knollys and Charlotte Martha Blackwell.[1] He was educated at Harrow School and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He was styled Viscount Wallingford until 1813, when his father's claim to the Earldom of Banbury was rejected.

Knollys was commissioned into the 3rd Foot Guards in 1813 and fought in the Peninsular War later that year.[1] In 1854 he was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey and then in 1855 he became the first General Officer Commanding Aldershot Division and was allocated the task of organising his troops into Divisions and Brigades.[1] Having achieved this task he was made President of the Council of Military Education in 1861.

He held the colonelcy of the 62nd (Wiltshire) Regiment of Foot from 1858 until its amalgamation into the Duke of Edinburgh's (Wiltshire Regiment) in 1881, after which he was Colonel of the 1st Battalion of the new Regiment. He transferred as Colonel to the Scots Guards in 1883 but died later the same year.

In 1862 he was appointed Treasurer and Comptroller to the Household of Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII.[1] He was sworn in as Privy Counsellor in 1872 and in 1877 made Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod.

He was promoted to full General on 17 June 1866 and made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in 1867.

After his death in 1883 at the House of Lords he was buried at Highgate Cemetery (east side)

FURTHER INFORMATION

General William Knollys had been appointed by Queen Victoria as Comptroller and Treasurer of the Prince of Wales’s household with a private mandate to report on his indiscretions to the sovereign.

Queen Victoria believed the Prince of Wales’s affair with an Irish actress had hastened the demise of her beloved husband the Prince Consort, Albert, in 1861 and appointed Knollys Senior to make sure the errant prince sinned no more. The General reported to The Queen that her son’s trips to Paris were ‘very unsatisfactory’ and told tales of ‘suppers after the opera with some of the female Paris notorieties’. Francis Knollys resolved to be the prince’s trusted servant and secret keeper.

By 1867, General Knollys acknowledged that he could not control the Prince of Wales. In 1870 the prince appointed his Son Francis Knollys as his Private Secretary while keeping the services of the General for form’s sake and to placate Queen Victoria. Edward VII’s biographer Jane Ridley describes Francis Knollys thus: ‘a dapper little man with shiny black hair and a beard cut into a strip down his chin. He resembled an Italian waiter. The Queen thought he was not fit for the post demanding instead a clever, able man capable of being of use and giving advice. Her conclusion was that, though useful, Francis Knollys was not considered clever by anyone.