Thomas Daniel Knox, 6th Earl of Ranfurly
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Thomas Daniel Knox, 6th Earl of Ranfurly (1914 - 1988), known as Dan Ranfurly, was a Second Lieutenant in the British 7th Armoured Division, called "the Desert Rats". His exploits, along with those of his wife, Hermione, and valet, Whitaker, are chronicled in his wife's memoirs from the time, To War With Whitaker: The Wartime Diaries of the Countess of Ranfurly, 1939 - 1945.
He and his wife met in 1937 when he was an aide-de-camp to Lord Gowrie, the Governor-General of Australia. Two years later, both aged 25, they returned to Britain and were married. They later had a daughter, Caroline.
Lord Ranfurly was initially posted to British-controlled Palestine, thence to join with the 7th in Egypt. His wife, violating multiple British Army protocols forbidding the wives of soldiers at the front, repeatedly hatched schemes to join him as he was shuffled across the Middle East and North Africa, finally succeeding in Cairo in 1941. Soon after, however, Lord Ranfurly was captured at Tobruk, and remained an Italian prisoner-of-war for three further years before escaping. He was prisoner in several special camps for distinguished military prisoners, including generals Richard O'Connor, Philip Neame, and Adrian Carton De Wiart. He became friends with Carton De Wiart.
Following the end of World War II, Lord Ranfurly worked briefly in insurance at Lloyd's of London, not long after being appointed Governor of the Bahamas by Winston Churchill. While there, he and his wife began the Ranfurly Library Service in Nassau.
After they returned home in 1957, Lady Ranfurly continued to ship books to parts of the world short on libraries, founding an organization now known as Book Aid International. Lord Ranfurly, meanwhile, took up farming at his Buckinghamshire estate. He died in 1988.
External link
- Biography of the Countess of Ranfurly, as well as a discussion of her memoirs (http://www.64-baker-street.org/also/also_hermione_countess_of_ranfurly.html)
| Preceded by: Uchter John Mark Knox | Earl of Ranfurly | Followed by: Gerald Francoys Needham Knox |