[3] The appointment had a social dimension, and the Duke of Cambridge, Commander-in-Chief, had recommended Knowles or Reginald Thynne, on the grounds that they both had "very nice wives".

George Luther Elliott;[11] their daughter Esme had married Francis Jearrad Bowker, who was ADC to Knowles in Malta.

[12] Bowker was killed in the Mesopotamian Campaign, fighting at the Hanna defile on 21 January 1916; and Esme became involved in relief work for British prisoners of the Ottomans.

[14] Lady Constance Knowles died in 1931 at home in Camberley, an obituary notice appearing under the title "Fine Work for Red Cross and Ambulance.

"[15] From that time in the 1930s Esme was involved in restoring and adding to the Elliott family home at Egland, Awliscombe, now a listed building, working with the architect Walter Sarel.