Photograph of Lord Knollys: half-length portrait, looking ahead, with grey receding hair, long untidy moustache, spotty waistcoat, cravat and morning jacket. Francis Knollys, first Viscount Knollys was a British courtier. He served as Private Secretary to King Edward VII and George V from 1901 to 1913; he was Edward VII's private secretary and confidant, as was his sister Charlotte Knollys, private secretary to Queen Alexandra. Their father also served Queen Victoria and Edward VII when Prince of Wales in his early adulthood.