William Francis Jackson Knight, 1895-1964

Knight was the son of George Knight and Caroline Louisa Jackson. He was educated at Dulwich College and Hertford College Oxford, where he won an Open Scholarship in Classics. In the First World war he served as a motorcycle despatch rider. After the War he taught at a number of places, including All Saints School, Bloxham, and the University of St Andrews before being appointed to University College of the South West as an Assistant Lecturer in 1936. He became a Lecturer in 1937, and Reader in 1942. He founded and commanded the University College officer training corps. His publications on classical literature, begining with Vergil's Troy in 1932, eventually numbered more than a dozen.

From the guide to the Jackson Knight: lecture on Vergil's Latin, 1950s, (University of Exeter)

William Francis Jackson Knight, the elder son of George Knight and Caroline Louisa Jackson, was born on 20 October 1895. He was educated at Dulwich College and Hertford College Oxford, to which he won an open scholarship in Classics. He served as a despatch rider during the First World War. After a number of teaching jobs, including ten years at All Saints' School, Bloxham, he became a temporary lecturer in Classics at the University of St Andrews. The following year he accepted an Assistant Lectureship at Exeter, which he turned to a Lectureship the next year and a Readership in 1942. He remained at Exeter, a committed educationalist who inspired hundreds of students, until and after he retired. His publications included several works on Virgil, including Vergil's Troy (1932), Cummaean Gates (1936), Accentual Symmetry in Vergil (1939), Roman Vergil (1943), Vergil and Homer (1950), and Virgil's Aeneid, a translation (Penguin Classics, 1956). In addition he played a key role in extra-mural activities, encouraging young poets and establishing and commanding the University's Officer Training Corps. He established the international review Erasmus. He retired from teaching in 1961. His biography, by his brother George Wilson Knight, was published in 1975.

From the guide to the Jackson Knight letters to Professor Huxley, 1948-1964, (University of Exeter)

William Francis Jackson Knight, the elder son of George Knight and Caroline Louisa Jackson, was born on 20 October 1895. He was educated at Dulwich College and Hertford College Oxford, to which he won an open scholarship in Classics. He served as a despatch rider during the First World War. After a number of teaching jobs, including ten years at All Saints' School, Bloxham, he became a temporary lecturer in Classics at the University of St Andrews. The following year he accepted an Assistant Lectureship at Exeter, which he turned to a Lectureship the next year and a Readership in 1942. He remained at Exeter, a committed educationalist who inspired hundreds of students, until and after he retired. His publications included several works on Virgil, including Vergil's Troy (1932), Cummaean Gates (1936), Accentual Symmetry in Vergil (1939), Roman Vergil (1943), Vergil and Homer (1950), and Virgil's Aeneid, a translation (Penguin Classics, 1956). In addition he played a key role in extra-mural activities, encouraging young poets and establishing and commanding the University's Officer Training Corps. He established the international review Erasmus . He retired from teaching in 1961. His biography, by his brother George Wilson Knight, was published in 1975.

John Richard Thornhill Pollard (b1914), was the author of Birds in Greek Life and Myth (1977), and Seers, shrines and sirens: the Greek religious revolution in the sixth century BC (1965).

From the guide to the Jackson Knight letters to Dr Pollard, 1945-1957, (University of Exeter)

William Francis Jackson Knight (1895-1964), classical scholar, the elder son of George Knight and Caroline Louisa Jackson, was educated at Dulwich College and Hertford College Oxford, to which he won an open scholarship in Classics. He served as a despatch rider during the First World War. After a number of teaching jobs, including ten years at All Saints' School, Bloxham, he became a temporary lecturer in Classics at the University of St Andrews. The following year he accepted an Assistant Lectureship at Exeter, which he turned to a Lectureship the next year and a Readership in 1942. He remained at Exeter, a committed educationalist who inspired hundreds of students, until and after he retired. His publications included several works on Virgil, including Vergil's Troy (1932), Cummaean Gates (1936), Accentual Symmetry in Vergil (1939), Roman Vergil (1943), Vergil and Homer (1950), and Virgil's Aeneid, a translation (Penguin Classics, 1956). In addition he played a key role in extra-mural activities, encouraging young poets and establishing and commanding the University's Officer Training Corps. He established the international review Erasmus. His biography, by his brother George Wilson Knight, was published in 1975.

George Richard Wilson Knight (1897-1984), Professor of English Literature, was the young son of George Knight and Caroline Louisa Jackson, and the younger brother of Jackson Knight. Like his brother, he was educated at Dulwich College and also served as a despatch rider during the Great War (see also EUL MS 84) . After graduating from St Edmund Hall, Oxford, he became a teacher of English. Shorts spells at Hawtreys (1923-5), Dean Close School (1925-31), University of Toronto (1931-1940), and Stowe (1941-46) were followed by his appointment as Reader in English Literature at Leeds University in 1946. From 1956 he was Professor of English Literature at Leeds, retiring in 1962. His publications, beginning with Myth and Miracle (1929) and the Wheel of Fire (1930) number more than thirty. He produced and acted in a number of theatrical performances, especially Shakespearian, on both sides of the Atlantic. He received an Honorary DLitt from Exeter in 1968. His biography of his brother, based in part on the family's papers represented in this collection, was published in 1975. He retired to Exeter, living in his brother's house just off the university campus, until his death in 1984.

From the guide to the Knight Family Papers, c1920-1975, (University of Exeter)

Jackson Knight, the elder son of George Knight and Caroline Louisa Jackson, was born on 20 October 1895. He was educated at Dulwich College and Hertford College Oxford, to which he won an open scholarship in Classics. He served as a despatch rider during the First World War. After a number of teaching jobs, including ten years at All Saints' School, Bloxham, he became a temporary lecturer in Classics at the University of St Andrews. The following year he accepted an Assistant Lectureship at Exeter, which he turned to a Lectureship the next year and a Readership in 1942. He remained at Exeter, a committed educationalist who inspired hundreds of students, until and after he retired. His publications included several works on Virgil, including Vergil's Troy (1932), Cummaean Gates (1936), Accentual Symmetry in Vergil (1939), Roman Vergil (1943), Vergil and Homer (1950), and Virgil's Aeneid, a translation (Penguin Classics, 1956). In addition he played a key role in extra-mural activities, encouraging young poets and establishing and commanding the University's Officer Training Corps. He established the international review Erasmus . His biography, by his brother George Wilson Knight, was published in 1975.

Theo[dora] Brown (1914-1993), folklorist, was adopted at the age of two and raised by the Langford Brown family of Barton Hall, Kingskerswell, Devon. Her natural father was a Welsh scholar later head of a Department at the British Museum. Her adopted father was a magistrate and member of the local gentry; her adopted mother was interested in pixies on Dartmoor and nature, particularly flowers, and art. Theo took up painting as a result of her mother's encouragement and exhibited as a member of the Kenn group of artists. During the 2nd Wprld War she served as a petty officer with the Fleet Air Arm. At the end of the War a chance encounter with Jackson Knight started her career as a folklorist. In 1952 she took over from Knight as recorder of folklore for the Devonshire Association, and continued researching 'local traditions, strange legends, eccentric characters and Otherworld beliefs' for the rest of her life. She was elected to the Council of the Folklore Society in 1957 and became a Research Fellow at the University of Exeter (Depts of Theology and History) in the 1960s. In 1971 she organised a colloquium entitled The Journey to the other world and contributed a paper on West Country entrances to the Underworld. This was later published, as was her own book The Fate of the dead . She suffered a stroke in 1978, but continued working and occasionally teaching at Broadclyst Primary School.

From the guide to the Jackson Knight letters to Theo Brown, 1945-1968, (University of Exeter)

Jackson Knight, the elder son of George Knight and Caroline Louisa Jackson, was born on 20 October 1895. He was educated at Dulwich College and Hertford College Oxford, to which he won an open scholarship in Classics. He served as a despatch rider during the First World War. After a number of teaching jobs, including ten years at All Saints' School, Bloxham, he became a temporary lecturer in Classics at the University of St Andrews. The following year he accepted an Assistant Lectureship at Exeter, which he turned to a Lectureship the next year and a Readership in 1942. He remained at Exeter, a committed educationalist who inspired hundreds of students, until and after he retired. His publications included several works on Virgil, including Vergil's Troy (1932), Cummaean Gates (1936), Accentual Symmetry in Vergil (1939), Roman Vergil (1943), Vergil and Homer (1950), and Virgil's Aeneid, a translation (Penguin Classics, 1956). In addition he played a key role in extra-mural activities, encouraging young poets and establishing and commanding the University's Officer Training Corps. He established the international review Erasmus . He retired from teaching in 1961. His biography, by his brother George Wilson Knight, was published in 1975.

Hugh Stubbs was an Assistant Lecturer in the Classics Dept 1942-46 and a Lecturer from 1946 until his retirement in the 1960s.

From the guide to the Jackson Knight's, Elysion, 1960s, (University of Exeter)

William Francis Jackson Knight (1895-1964), classical scholar, the elder son of George Knight and Caroline Louisa Jackson, was born on 20 October 1895. He was educated at Dulwich College and Hertford College Oxford, to which he won an open scholarship in Classics. He served as a despatch rider during the First World War. After a number of teaching jobs, including ten years at All Saints' School, Bloxham, he became a temporary lecturer in Classics at the University of St Andrews. The following year he accepted an Assistant Lectureship at Exeter, which he turned to a Lectureship the next year and a Readership in 1942. He remained at Exeter, a committed educationalist who inspired hundreds of students, until and after he retired. His publications included several works on Virgil, including Vergil's Troy (1932), Cummaean Gates (1936), Accentual Symmetry in Vergil (1939), Roman Vergil (1943), Vergil and Homer (1950), and Virgil's Aeneid, a translation (Penguin Classics, 1956). In addition he played a key role in extra-mural activities, encouraging young poets and establishing and commanding the University's Officer Training Corps. He established the international review Erasmus . He retired from teaching in 1961. His biography, by his brother George Wilson Knight, was published in 1975.

RA Collingsplatt appears to have been a student of Knight's at Exeter, although his name does not appear in either volume of the Exeter University Register . He appears to have been resident in Newmarket for some years.

From the guide to the Jackson Knight letters to Mr Collingsplatt, 1962-1963, (University of Exeter)