Frank Knight

Francis Edgar Knight (1905-1998) was a navigation instructor in the Royal Air Force during World War II, after his retirement he became an author of fiction and non-fiction.

Biography Knight was born in 1905. At the age of 15, Knight became an apprentice in the Merchant Navy. For ten years he served in many countries, visiting scores of ports, and obtaining his Extra Master Mariner's certificate when he was 24. Throughout the war he taught navigation in the RAF to pupil navigators of Bomber and Coastal Commands. He flew regularly with pupils both in Britain and South Africa.

After the war he reverted to selling yachts before settling down to write about the sea, including works in fiction and non fiction. He died in 1998 after publishing more than 45 books, primarily sea stories and war battles.

Frank Knights books were used in schools around the world for education and were fun to read, and used as supplementary reading for learning history.

Personal Frank Knight married in 1933 to Elizabeth Mather, whom he called Betty. They emigrated to South Africa in 1940 with their two children, and went on to have two more children. After the Second World they came back to England on a troopship. In 1966 Knight appeared on Blue Peter; he was interviewed by Lance Percival talking about old children's stories which he had used as inspiration for early cartoons.