Knocker Gallery

The Two at Pervyse with Shot the dog memorial, Ypres

This memorial is in the garden of the Ariane Hotel in Ypres. The Two is the title given to two extrordinary British laidies, Elsie Knocker and Mairie Chisholm, who came out to Belgium and set up medical facilities in the town of Pervyse in support of the Belgian Army. Their biographer, Diane Atkinson, moved to have a memorial statue set up in Pervyse, but the town refused. Natasha, proprietor of the Ariane Hotel, a favorite lodging place for British visitors to Ypres, offered to have the statue in the gardens. Both ladies are sitting on a sandbag wall with their dog, Shot, in the foreground. Date: 2015

© Holts Battlefield Collection / Mary Evans

Mairi Chisholm and Elsie Knocker - Madonnas of Pervyse

Mairi Lambert Gooden-Chisholm of Chisholm, better known as Mairi Chisholm (1895-1981), Scottish nurse and ambulance driver during World War I, pictured right with, on the left, Elsie Knocker (known here as Baroness de T'Serclaes after her second marriage to a Belgian in 1916), also a nurse and ambulance driver. Both were awarded the Military Medal for their bravery and work with the wounded on the Western Front in Belgium. The pair initially joined the Voluntary Emergency Corps but then later set up their own first aid dressing station just 100 yards from the trenches at Pervyse, north of Ypres. Elsie concentrated on providing medical attention while Mairi transported injured soldiers to the base hospital fifteen miles away, often in highly dangerous conditions. Their bravery attracted journalists and photographers and the became some of the most photographed women of the war. Pictured in The Bystander after they had been invalided back to England after suffering a gas attack. Date: 1918

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans

Dr Johnsons Doorknocker

This fine door-knocker, in the form of a hand holding a circle of laurel leaves, with a lion motif, is on Dr Samuel Johnson's house at Gough Square, London. Date: 18th century

© Mary Evans Picture Library

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