Walter Knight-Adkin


The Very Reverend Walter Kenrick Knight-Adkin was an eminent Anglican priest in the first half of the 20th Century.

Ecclesiastical career

Born in Cheltenham, Knight-Adkin was educated at Cheltenham College and St Edmund Hall, Oxford. 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 on 31 April 1910 as a Chaplain with the Royal Navy rising to become Chaplain of the Fleet from 1929 to 1933, after which he was Dean of Gibraltar. 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. He was an Honorary Canon of Portsmouth Cathedral and was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Gloucester and of Bristol on 3 June 1950.

Family

Knight-Adkin was the second son of the Rev Harry Kenrick Knight-Adkin and Georgina Elizabeth Knight. He was born in Cheltenham on 17 August 1880.
He married Elizabeth Cuff Napier 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. His wife was to live a further 27 years.
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.

Naval career