Person

Knight, James Charles Burdett

1897–1997

J.C.B. Knight could be said to have had three careers as an illustrator – firstly as a cartoonist during the 1920s, then as an illustrator of children’s stories throughout the 1930s, and finally as an illustrator of children’s reference books during the 1950s and 1960s. He was also the longest-living illustrator of his era, dying just short of his 100th birthday. He was born on 27 September 1897 in Reigate, Surrey, and christened James Charles Burdett Knight. His father, Frank Royal Knight, was born in Southwark in May 1870, and followed his father’s career as a draper in Reigate (he had taken over a draper’s store there, at 8-10 Bell Street, in 1883). In 1894, he married Mary Burdett, born in Guildford, Surrey, in 1869, the daughter of a builder. (Frank and Mary had met whilst Frank had been an apprentice in Guildford) ... Having apparently retired in the mid-1960s, Knight remained at 109 Blackborough Road, Reigate, for the rest of his life. His father, who had been the Chairman of the local Holmedale Building Society between 1933 and 1957, died in 1963; his wife died in February 1974; his sister, who had worked in the family drapery business, died in December 1987; and Knight himself died in January 1997, and was buried in the churchyard of St. Mary’s Church, Reigate