Walter Knight-Adkin

The Very Rev Walter Kenrick Knight-Adkin CB OBE DL (17 August 1880 – 24 May 1957) was an eminent Anglican priest in the first half of the 20th Century.^[1]

Born in Cheltenham, Knight-Adkin was educated at Cheltenham College and St Edmund Hall, Oxford.^[2] He did his pastoral training at Wells Theological College. Ordained in June 1908 at St Paul's Cathedral in London, he was a Curate at Kentish Town before commencing a long period of service^[3] as a Chaplain with the Royal Navy rising to become Chaplain of the Fleet^[4] from 1929 to 1933, after which he was Dean of Gibraltar.^[5] Evacuated to England in 1941 due to illness, he became civilian Vicar of Sparkwell then Chaplain to the Lord Mayor of Bristol at St Mark`s Church, College Green.

He was awarded the OBE in 1919 and appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1932. On 25 January 1929 he was appointed as Honorary Chaplain to HM King George V.^[6] He was an Honorary Canon of Bristol Cathedral and was Deputy Lieutenant of Gloucester and of Bristol.^[7]

Family

Knight-Adkin was the second son of the Rev Harry Kenrick Knight-Adkin (1851–1928) and Georgina Elizabeth Knight (1849–1930). He was born in Cheltenham on 17 August 1880.^[8]

He married Elizabeth Cuff Napier (1891–1984) at St. Andrew's-by-the-Green, Glasgow on 20 December 1915. His bride was the daughter of Colonel Alexander Napier RAMC. They had one child, Peter Napier Knight-Adkin, who died at Portsmouth in 1918.

Walter died at his home at 17 Miles Road, Bristol on 24 May 1957.^[9] His wife was to live a further 27 years.^[10]

His elder brother was the war poet James Harry Knight-Adkin. His younger brother, Frederick John Knight-Adkin, after a period working as a journalist and author in New York, emigrated to Argentina where he became a successful cattle rancher. He had two sisters, Georgina Noel Knight-Adkin, a photographer in Bristol, and Violet Doris Knight-Adkin who died at the age of 19.^[11]

Naval career

• 1910 HMS Lancaster
• 1912 HMS Victory
• 1913 HMS Conqueror
• 1916 HMS Victory
• 1919 HMS Revenge
• 1920 RN College Dartmouth
• 1923 HMS Queen Elizabeth
• 1924 HMS Victory
• 1929 RN College Greenwich^[12]

Notes & Sources