15th Reserve Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
Archibald Clutterbuck Knee was the only child of Charles and Rosa (formerly Clutterbuck) Knee of Minchinhampton. He was born on 9 July 1891. His father was a woollen worker.
The 1911 Census shows 19-year-old Archibald working at a woollen mill.
Sadly, Archibald, when aged 25, committed suicide by drowning, taking his fiancée with him on 27 August 1916. The majority of the information available has been found by reading the report Coroner’s inquest which was published widely not only in the county but in newspapers in Birmingham and Lichfield, the latter two reporting the fact that the couple were missing. There are several documents scanned on to Ancestry including comprehensive pieces taken from the Stroud News of 8 September 1916 following the inquest.
Archibald enlisted voluntarily with the 15th Reserve Battalion on 14 June 1916 – just three months after the passing of the Military Services Act. He returned to his home on leave on 22 August from his camp in Chiseldon. He was recovering from German measles. Apparently, he had told his father that he would rather die than return to camp. He had suffered with nervous depression since childhood. Archibald was engaged to 18-year-old Dorothy Beard whom he had known for three years. On the evening of 27 August, he was supposedly taking Dorothy home prior to catching the train back to Swindon. However, Dorothy did not return and neither did Archibald. They were reported missing but not found until five days later in Iron Mills pond by a passer-by. The bodies were tied together with Archibald’s coat, face to face. On him was his military pass and return railway ticket.
The inquest was held at the Weighbridge Inn near Nailsworth on 2 September 1916, close to where the couple were found. No marks were found on Dorothy and the Coroner concluded suicide as the cause of death for them both.
Entering Archibald’s service number and name into Google, I found a piece about the couple under Ye Radical Stroude Gazette written some years ago. The writer embellishes the story with imagined conversations between the couple prior to their deaths. It rather romanticises the situation.
Archibald was buried at Minchinhampton Baptist Church. He has a private headstone inscribed: ‘Our dearly loved and only child No one knows the silent heartache Only those can tell Who have lost their best and dearest Without a last farewell’.
Dorothy Beard was buried at Amberley.
The only military document I have found is an entry in the UK Army Register of Soldier’s Effects which shows a payment of £3 4s 5d to Charles Knee.
Charles died in 1922 and is remembered on his son’s headstone. His mother, Rosa died in 1931.
Researched by Helen Wollington February 2021