10.5cm long.
Steel. Private issue pocket knife with presentation inscription, the steel cover inscribed 'From Lady Werner, Xmas 1915, 12th Lancers’
Alice, Lady Wern(h)er as she was known during the First World War, was the widowed lady of the manor of Luton, with her seat at Luton Hoo. Her charitable endeavours covered everything from infrastructure projects to supplies for local hospitals, Red Cross ambulances for the Western Front and gifts for troops in the field. The latter including pocket watches and penknives for members of her second son’s regiment, 12th Prince of Wales’s Lancers
Alice (1862-1945) married in 1888 the diamond magnate Sir Julius Wernher, 1st Baronet. They had three sons; Sir Derrick Julius Wernher, 2nd Bart., a wastrel, disinherited by his father; Major-General Sir Harold Wernher, late 12th Lancers; and Second Lieutenant Alexander Pigott Wernher who was killed in action at Delville Wood, aged 19, while serving with Prince of Wales's Company, Welsh Guards.
