Lawrence E. Knox
Major Lawrence Edward Knox was a British Army officer and founder of The Irish Times. He was born in the Kemp Town area of Brighton in East Sussex, England. His parents were Arthur Edward Knox of Castle Rea, County Mayo, and Jane Parsons, daughter of Laurence Parsons, 2nd Earl of Rosse.
In 1859, at the age of 22, he founded The Irish Times. Knox purchased an Ensigncy in the 63rd Foot in 1854 and was promoted Lieutenant without purchase later the same year. He purchased a Captaincy in 1857. He exchanged into the 11th Foot in 1858. In 1866 he was commissioned Major in the Tower Hamlets Militia. In 1868 he was elected to Parliament for Sligo Borough, although the election was later declared void and the borough disenfranchised for corruption. Eighteen months later, in May 1870, he contested a by-election in Mallow on the platform of Isaac Butt's fledgling Home Government Association, but was defeated.
Knox died at his home in Dublin on 24 January 1873, of scarlet fever.
