| Admin History | George Richard Wilson Knight (1897-1984), Professor of English Literature, was the youngest son of George Knight and Caroline Louisa Jackson, and the younger brother of Jackson Knight. He was educated at Dulwich College and St. Edmund Hall Oxford. He served as a despatch rider in the Middle East during the Great War, and in peace time became a teacher of English. Short spells teaching at Hawtreys (1923-1925), Dean Close School (1925-1931), University of Toronto (1931-1940), and Stowe (1941-1946) 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. |