Wilfred Knox
FSA FBA | |
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Born | Kibworth Beauchamp, England | 21 May 1886
Died | 9 February 1950 Cambridge, England | (aged 63)
Parents |
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Relatives |
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Ecclesiastical career | |
Religion | Christianity (Anglican) |
Church | Church of England |
Ordained |
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Academic background | |
F. D. Maurice | |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Theology |
School or tradition | Anglo-Catholicism |
Institutions | Pembroke College, Cambridge |
Wilfred Lawrence Knox
Life and career
Early years
Knox was born 21 May 1886 at
The rector was ill at ease with the comfortable way of life of Kibworth, feeling he could do more good in a deprived area. In 1891, when Wilfred was five, the family moved to the parish of Aston-juxta-Birmingham, a poor area of Birmingham.[6] In 1892 Ellen Knox died. Wilfred and his younger brother were sent to live with their bachelor uncle, his formidable widowed mother and his sisters. Two years later Edmund Sr became suffragan Bishop of Coventry, remarried, and reunited his six children. He was persuaded that the boys should attend public schools. All four boys won scholarships to Rugby (Edmund Jr and Wilfred) or Eton (Dillwyn and Ronald).
Wilfred's early concern for poverty was reinforced at Aston. At Rugby he came under the influence of an older pupil,
From Rugby, Knox won a scholarship to Trinity College, Oxford. He suffered a crisis in his religious faith while there, and threw himself into study. He was placed in the first class in classical moderations (1907) and in literae humaniores (1909). On coming down from Oxford he obtained a civil service post as a junior examiner at the Board of Education.[8] His Christian faith no longer in doubt, he moved away from his father's evangelicalism towards Anglo-Catholicism.[b] Bishop Knox was distressed by his son's doctrinal views, but in full support of his work among the poor in the East End of London. During the Oxford vacations, and later while working as a civil servant, Knox lived at the Trinity Mission in Stratford, of which he later became warden for a short period.[1] His mentors and role models were Temple and George Lansbury, the latter a future leader of the Labour Party, who was a prominent figure in the East End.[10] Through Lansbury's influence Knox became involved with the Workers' Educational Association, of which Temple was president.[10]
Ministry
In 1913 Knox resigned from the civil service. He studied theology at St Anselm's College, Cambridge, and was ordained
In 1920 Knox moved to Cambridge as a member of the Oratory of the Good Shepherd until 1922. He then spent two years in parish work at St Saviour's, Hoxton, in east London as assistant priest.[13] In 1924 he left London and returned to Cambridge to become Warden of the Oratory of the Good Shepherd. While holding the wardenship[citation needed] he became a member of Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he received the degrees of Bachelor of Divinity (1937) and Doctor of Divinity (1943).[14] In 1941 he was appointed chaplain to the college, and in 1946 was elected a fellow.[1]
In the
Knox died 9 February 1950 in Cambridge at the age of 63.[15] So many wanted to attend his memorial service in Pembroke chapel that there had to be a ballot for tickets.[16] Canon Henry R. T. Brandreth said of him, "There has never been anyone like Father Wilfred and it is impossible to believe that there ever will be. ... He sacrificed his own interests and inclinations on [the Oratory's] behalf with a wonderful steadfastness."[17]
Books
- The Catholic Movement in the Church of England, 1923
- St Paul and the Church of Jerusalem, 1925
- Meditation and Mental Prayer, 1927
- The Church in Crisis, 1928
- (with Eric Milner-White) One God and Father of All, 1929
- Life of St Paul, 1932
- (with Alec Vidler) The Development of Modern Catholicism, 1933
- (with Vidler) The Gospel of God and the Authority of the Church, 1937
- St Paul and the Church of the Gentiles, 1939
- Some Hellenistic Elements in Primitive Christianity (The Schweich Lectures 1942), 1944
- The Acts of the Apostles 1948
- (ed. Henry Chadwick) The Sources of the Synoptic Gospels (two volumes, 1953 and 1957)
Notes
References
Footnotes
- ^ a b c d e f Watson 2008.
- ^ Dod's Peerage 1904, p. 983.
- ^ The Spectator. Vol. 20. 1847. p. 1171.
- ^ 'The Gentleman's Magazine. Vol. 177. 1845. p. 311.
- ^ Arbuthnot, William (16 February 2010). "The Descendants of John, 8th Viscount of Arbuthnott". Kittybrewster.com. Archived from the original on 15 June 2006. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ Fitzgerald 1978, pp. 34–35.
- ^ Fitzgerald 1978, p. 156.
- ^ Fitzgerald 1978, p. 9.
- ^ Fitzgerald 1978, p. 97.
- ^ a b Fitzgerald 1978, p. 101.
- ^ Fitzgerald 1978, p. 122.
- ^ Fitzgerald 1978, p. 128.
- ^ "Canon W. L. Knox". The Times. London. 10 February 1950. p. 9.
- ^ Wynn 1959, pp. 463–464.
- ^ a b c d Wynn 1959, p. 464.
- ^ Fitzgerald 1978, p. 167.
- ^ Fitzgerald 1978, p. 265.
Bibliography
- Dod's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of Great Britain and Ireland. Sampson Low, Marston & Co. 1904.
- OCLC 11546313.
- Watson, Natalie K. (2008). "Knox, Wilfred Lawrence (1886–1950)". .
- . Retrieved 5 October 2018.