William Thomas Knollys

Sir William Knollys
Gen. Sir William Knollys
Born	1 August 1797
Died	23 June 1883 (1883-06-24) (aged 85)
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Rank	General
Commands held	Guernsey Aldershot Division
Battles/wars	Peninsular War
Awards	Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath

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

Born into the Knollys family, he was the son of General William Woods Knollys and Charlotte Martha Blackwell. 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. 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. 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. He was sworn in as Privy Counsellor in 1872 and in 1877 made Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod.