Edmund Knox (bishop of Manchester)

The Right Reverend

Edmund Knox
Bishop of Manchester
ChurchChurch of England
In office1903 to 1921
PredecessorJames Moorhouse
SuccessorWilliam Temple
Other post(s)Bishop of Coventry (1894–1903)
Orders
Ordination1872
Personal details
Born6 December 1847
Died16 January 1937(1937-01-16) (aged 89)
DenominationAnglicanism
Childrensix
EducationSt Paul's School, London
Alma materCorpus Christi College, Oxford

Edmund Arbuthnott Knox (6 December 1847 – 16 January 1937) was the fourth Bishop of Manchester, from 1903 to 1921. He was described as a prominent evangelical.[1]

Biography

Born in Bangalore, the second son of the Reverend George Knox and Frances Mary Anne (daughter of Thomas Forbes Reynolds, M.D. and a sister of the daughter-in-law of John Arbuthnott, 8th Viscount of Arbuthnott)[2][3][4][5] and educated at St Paul's and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, he was ordained in 1872 and began his ecclesiastical career with a period as Fellow, Tutor, and Dean of Merton College, Oxford.[6] He was also rector of St Wilfrid's Church in Kibworth from 1884 to 1891, then from 1891 vicar of Aston by Birmingham, and from 1894 to 1903 rector of St Philip's, Birmingham, Suffragan Bishop of Coventry and Archdeacon of Birmingham.[7]

Knox was the author of a distinguished history of the Oxford Movement written from an unsympathetic evangelical viewpoint.

Knox was an early proponent of cremation. In a letter read at the 1903 opening ceremony of the Birmingham Crematorium, he wrote:[8]

in spite of strong sentimental objections very naturally entertained, we shall come to see that under the conditions of modern life cremation is not only preferable from the sanitary point of view, but that it is also the most reverent and decent treatment of the bodies of the dead.

During the First World War, Knox was an early proponent of conscription rather than relying on volunteers to serve in the forces and elsewhere. He believed that the Government should have legislated for ‘The whole resources of the country in men and means’ being placed ‘unreservedly at the disposal of the country’. [9] He was one of the few bishops who supported the desire of many younger clergy to serve as combatants which the Bench of Bishops had voted overwhelmingly against.[10] ‘My heart is with those clergy who wish to show that they are ready to share the same hardships and dangers as the rest of their parishioners’.[11]

Knox died on 16 January 1937. On 27 January 1937, a memorial service was held at All Souls Church, Langham Place. H. Earnshaw Smith, then Rector of All Souls, officiated the service, Sidney Nowell Rostron read the lesson and T. W. Gilbert gave the address.[12] He was then laid to rest in what is now Beckenham Cemetery.

Family

Bishop Knox was married twice. First he married Ellen Penelope French (1854–1892) in 1878, daughter of Thomas Valpy French, Bishop of Lahore. Second, he married Ethel Mary Newton in 1895, daughter of Canon Horace Newton of Holmwood, Redditch and Glencripesdale Estate Argyllshire.

He was father of six children by his first wife Ellen French:

His sister was Ellen Mary Knox, the first principal of Havergal College in Toronto, Canada.[13] Another brother became a judge in the Allahabad High Court, later Sir George Edward Knox (1845 — 1922).[14]

References

  1. ^ Cross & Livingstone (1984). The Oxford Dictionary of The Christian Church. p. 786.
  2. ^ Dod's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of Great Britain and Ireland, Sampson Low, Marston & Co., 1904, p. 983
  3. ^ The Spectator, vol. 20, 1847, p. 1171
  4. ^ The Gentleman's Magazine, vol. 177, 1845, p. 311
  5. ^ "Table e part 2". Archived from the original on 15 June 2006.
  6. ^ Malden Richard (ed) (1920). Crockford's Clerical Directory for 1920 (51st edn). London: The Field Press. p. 986.
  7. ^ Appointment of Dr Knox as Bishop of Manchester, Leamington Spa Courier, 9 October 1903.
  8. ^ "Birmingham Crematorium". The Lancet. 162 (4181): 1109. 17 October 1903. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(01)46268-4.
  9. ^ Manchester Diocesan Magazine, September, 1915
  10. ^ Lambeth Palace Library, Bishops Meetings, BM6. Only 6 of 25 bishops voted in favour of allowing clergy to volunteer as combatants. Knox and the bishops of London, Southwark, St Asaph and St Edmundsbury were 5 of the 6. (October, 1915)
  11. ^ Manchester Diocesan Magazine, May, 1918
  12. ^ "Memorial Service". The Times. No. 47594. 28 January 1937. p. 17.
  13. ^ Charles Whately Parker, Barnet M. Greene eds., Who's Who in Canada (International Press 1922): 650.
  14. ^ FitzGerald, S.; Prior, K. (reviser) (2012). "Knox, Sir George Edward (1845–1922), judge in India". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34356. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Edmund Arbuthnott Knox.
Church of England titles
Preceded by Bishop of Coventry
1894–1903 		Vacant
Suffragan title ended
Title next held by
Huyshe Yeatman-Biggs
as diocesan bishop
Preceded by Bishop of Manchester
1903–1921 		Succeeded by