Margaret K. Knight, nee Kennedy, 1903-1983

Margaret Kennedy was born in Herefordshire in 1903 and graduated from Cambridge in the early 1920s. She began working at the National Institute of Industrial Psychology in London, but moved to Aberdeen after her marriage, in 1936, to Arthur Rex Knight (1903 - 1963), Anderson lecturer in Psychology at Aberdeen University, 1929 - 1963 (from 1945, reader, from 1947, professor). She lectured part time in the Department of Psychology from c 1948 - c 1970, and throughout her life, was engaged in an active programme of research and publication. A committed and outspoken proponent of Scientific Humanism, she presented 2 BBC radio programmes on the subject in the 1950s, which were published in 1955 as Morals Without Religion, and Other Essays (London: Dobson, 1955).

Other published works include Humanist Anthology, from Confucius to Bertrand Russell (London: Barrie&Rockliff, 1961); Honest to Man: Christian Ethics Re-examined (London: Elek, 1974): and with her husband, Rex Knight, A Modern Introduction to Psychology (London: University Tutorial Press, 1948), 7th edn, 1966. She also edited William James, William James: a Selection from his Writings on Psychology, The Pelican Psychology Series, (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1950).

An appreciation of Arthur Rex Knight is given in Aberdeen University Review, 40, (1963 - 1964), 63 - 64. See also Who was Who, 1961 - 1970 .

From the guide to the Papers of Margaret K. Knight, 20th century, (University of Aberdeen)