The Right Reverend Edmund Arbuthnott Knox was the fourth Bishop of Manchester, from 1903 to 1921.
Background
Born in Bangalore, the second son of the Reverend George Knox and Mary Anne Reynolds and educated at Street 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.
Education
Corpus Christi College. Saint Paul"s School.
Career
He was described as a prominent evangelical. He was also rector of Street Wilfrid"s Church in Kibworth from 1884 to 1891, and afterwards Archdeacon of Birmingham. 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:
Knox died on 16 January 1937. On 27 January 1937, a memorial service was held at All Souls Church, Langham Place.
The Reverend H. Earnshaw Smith, then Rector of All Souls, officiated the service, the Reverend Sidney Nowell Rostron read the lesson and the Reverend T. West. Gilbert gave the address. Bishop Knox was married twice.
Ethel Knox (1879–1958)
Edmund George Valpy Knox (1881–1971) who was editor of Punch magazine
Winifred Frances Knox (1882–1961), married James Peck and became known as an author under the name "Winifred Peck"
Alfred Dillwyn Knox (1884–1943), known as "Dilly", a classical scholar, and a codebreaker in both World Wars
Wilfred Lawrence Knox (1886–1950), Anglican priest
Ronald Arbuthnott Knox (1888–1957), former Anglican priest who became a Roman Catholic priest and translator of the Bible.
Views
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.