Orric Knudsen

Orric Knudsen attended Manchester Grammar School and then played for their Old Boys team, Old Mancunians, from 1911 until the early 1930s. After leaving school, he was an assistant agent with his father at the United Steamship Company of Denmark. During World War I he served with the 22nd Manchester Regiment and saw action in France. He was awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre and in 1919 was made a temporary captain. After the War he was based in Cologne as a Railway Training Officer with responsibility for the movement of troops. For his work in this role he was awarded the OBE.

After his demobilisation from the Army in 1922, Knudsen resumed his lacrosse career and won Lancashire county honours and also played for The North in their annual match against the South. In 1930, Old Mancunians beat Oxford University 4-3 with a last-minute goal to win the Iroquois Cup for the first time. Knudsen was still playing for Lancashire in 1931 at the age of 39.

Knudsen was also a fine athlete, and in 1914 ran the 800 metres in 2:09.6 in a meeting dubbed “Olympic Trials” at Fallowfield, Manchester. In 1933 Knudsen was granted a Royal Licence to wear the Insignia of Chevalier of the Order of the Dannebrog, conferred by the King of Denmark and Iceland, in recognition of his services as Denmark’s Honorary Vice-consul in Manchester. In 1937 Knudsen was appointed Honorary Consul of Roumania (now Romania) in Manchester, and held the post until 1940.