Charles William Robert Knight (1884–1957) M.C.,

F.R.P.S. The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is one of the world's oldest photographic societies. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as the Photographic Society of London with ...

, F.Z.S. was a well known British falconer, and a writer on, and promoter of,

falconry Falconry is the hunting of wild animals in their natural state and habitat by means of a trained bird of prey. Small animals are hunted; squirrels and rabbits often fall prey to these birds. Two traditional terms are used to describe a person ...

. He, and his star pupil – the eagle, Mr Ramshaw – feature prominently in the 1945 film ''

I Know Where I'm Going! ''I Know Where I'm Going!'' is a 1945 romance film by the British-based filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It stars Wendy Hiller and Roger Livesey, and features Pamela Brown and Finlay Currie. Plot Joan Webster is a 25-year-ol ...

''. Knight was born at

Sevenoaks Sevenoaks is a town in Kent with a population of 29,506 situated south-east of London, England. Also classified as a civil parish, Sevenoaks is served by a commuter main line railway into London. Sevenoaks is from Charing Cross, the tradition ...

, Kent, to Charles and Emily Knight; his brother, Frank, was the father of the actor

Esmond Knight Esmond Penington Knight (4 May 1906 – 23 February 1987) was an English actor. He had a successful stage and film career before World War II. For much of his later career Knight was half-blind. He had been badly wounded in 1941 while on active ...

. Educated at

Sevenoaks School Sevenoaks School is a highly selective coeducational independent school in Sevenoaks, Kent, England. It is the second oldest non-denominational school in the United Kingdom, dating back to 1432, only behind Oswestry (1407). Over 1,000 day pupil ...

, Knight joined the Queen's Own Royal

West Kent Regiment The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army based in the county of Kent in existence from 1881 to 1961. The regiment was created on 1 July 1881 as part of the Childers Reforms, originally as the Queen' ...

on the outbreak of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

, serving as a sniper; he saw action at Ypres, Messines Ridge and the Somme, and was awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...

. In 1917 he was promoted to captain in the 1st Battalion,

Honourable Artillery Company The Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) is a reserve regiment in the British Army. Incorporated by royal charter in 1537 by King Henry VIII, it is the oldest regiment in the British Army and is considered the second-oldest military unit in the w ...

, and went to the US in charge of a demonstration drill team. After the war, he worked in London as a tobacconist with his brother Frank, the Knight family business involving the importing of

Havana cigars Habanos S.A. is a Cuban manufacturing company of tobacco that controls the promotion, distribution, and export of premium cigars and other tobacco products for Cuba worldwide. It was established in 1994. Ownership of Habanos S.A. is split equa ...

from

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

. In 1924, he married Eva Olive Margaret Bennet; she died two years later. Knight died in

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

in 1957, and received an obituary in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...

''. Knight, and his "patriotic poultry" – as

Fred Allen John Florence Sullivan (May 31, 1894 – March 17, 1956), known professionally as Fred Allen, was an American comedian. His absurdist, topically pointed radio program '' The Fred Allen Show'' (1932–1949) made him one of the most popular and fo ...

once referred to the bird species – are perhaps most famous in the United States for their joint appearance on the March 20, 1940 episode of the Fred Allen

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transm ...

show: Mr. Ramshaw flew, defecatingly, about NBC's Studio 8-H ignoring both Knight's entreaties and proffered chicken heads – throwing their segment, and the rest of the Allen program, into hysterical chaos.Allen, Fred (1954) ''Treadmill To Oblivion'', Little, Brown and Company (pp. 121-132)

Selected publications

*Allen, Fred (1954). ''Treadmill To Oblivion''. Boston, Little, Brown and Company (An Atlantic Monthly Press Book). *Knight, C. W. R. (1946). ''Aristocrats of the air''. London, Williams and Norgate. *Knight, C. W. R. (1933). ''Mr. Ramshaw, my eagle''. London, Arrowsmith. *Knight, C. W. R. (1922). ''Wild life in the tree tops''. 53 illus. from photographs taken by the author. New York, G.H. Doran.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Knight, Chas 1884 births 1957 deaths Falconry People educated at Sevenoaks School