16 Facts About Elsie Knocker

Elsie Knocker was born Elizabeth Blackall Shapter in Exeter, Devon on 29 June 1884, the youngest of five children to Dr Thomas Lewis and Charlotte Shapter.

Elsie Knocker's mother died when she was four years old and her father died from tuberculosis two years later.

Elsie Knocker was adopted by Lewis Edward Upcott, a teacher at Marlborough College, and his wife Emily who sent her to be educated at St Nicholas's, Folkestone, and then at the exclusive Chateau Lutry in Switzerland.

Since being divorced was a status frowned upon in Edwardian England, Elsie Knocker invented the myth that her husband had died in Java, leaving her a widow.

Elsie Knocker became an ardent amateur motorbike enthusiast and when riding wore a dark green leather skirt and long leather coat buttoned all the way down with a belt "to keep it all together" designed by Dunhill.

Elsie Knocker earned the name "Gypsy" because of her love of the open road and membership of the Gypsy Motorcycle Club.

Elsie Knocker possessed a number of motorbikes including a Scott, a Douglas solo, and a Chater-Lea with a sidecar which would travel with her to the Western Front.

When war was declared in 1914, Elsie Knocker wrote to her friend and fellow motorcycle fanatic, Mairi Chisholm, that there was "work to be done", and suggested they go to London to become dispatch riders for the Women's Emergency Corps.

When Chisholm was chosen to join Hector Munro's Flying Ambulance Corps she was able to convince Munro to accept Elsie Knocker as well, as she had some training as a nurse, was an excellent mechanic and chauffeur, and spoke both French and German.

Elsie Knocker gave most of the medical attention, while Chisholm transported the injured, often in terrible conditions and under fire, to a base hospital 15 miles away.

In January 1916, Elsie Knocker was married again, to Baron Harold de T'Serclaes, a pilot in the Belgian Flying Corps, and a devout Roman Catholic.

Tragedy struck on 3 July 1942 with the death of her son, Wing Commander Kenneth Duke Elsie Knocker, who was killed when his plane was shot down over Groningen.

Elsie Knocker left the RAF in October 1942 following her son's death and because she needed to look after her elderly foster-father.

Elsie Knocker lived in the Earl Haig Homes in Park Lane, Ashtead, Surrey, from approximately 1926 until her death.

Elsie Knocker was greatly concerned about the welfare of both animals and the conservation of Ashtead Common where she could often be seen walking her pets, "flamboyantly dressed with large earrings and a voluminous dark cloak".

In November 2017 Elsie Knocker was recognised with a blue plaque on the house where she was born in Exeter.