10 I Meet Mrs Grace Knight
My teenage years
My first recollection of any religious person having any effect on my life was when I was about to leave school, at the age of 15 years old.
My mother had spoken to a Mr K H Knight who was the proprietor of Central Bucks T.V. and had arranged for me to have a part time job working after school and on a Saturday. This was until I left school and took up full time work as an apprentice to Mr Knight.
I am told years later that my letter of job application was so badly written and the spelling so awful it was laughable. However I was taken on despite my inability to write, spell or use correct grammar, or read properly. This was during my last year at school.
I first met Mrs Grace Knight, one Saturday morning, whilst working for her husband Ken. She was in hot pursuit of Ken and shouting at him for doing some thing she disapproved of.
I was in the workshop, with Norman Garret the other apprentice, and I thought- wow what an awful dragon of a woman and pitied Mr Knight from that moment on.
Through Mr Knight I was introduced to the Radio and Television servicing trade and often went with him into customer’s houses to repair T.V.’s and install television aerials.
I spent many hours with Ken going to peoples homes and soon learned that he was not faithful to his wife. Not that it bothered me, as I knew what Grace was like from our first meeting. The idea of sexual promiscuity was very attractive to me. When we went out enjoying our selves Mrs Knight would be left at home or in the workshop minding their two children Allison and Mark. They also had a big dog called Rufus.
By this time I had left school and was interested in our band, as we wanted to make music. Ian Myers was the bass guitarist and he built his own guitar amplifier from a circuit design and published in Practical Wireless. He built the amplifier and I helped him with the speaker cabinet and it was used in all our future gigs.
I soon began to realize the things I enjoyed were not the things Mrs Knight approved of, or found interesting. I thought she was a right “kill joy” and was boring. She was a Christian what ever that meant and I soon realize her values were not the same as mine. What I considered good and enjoyable she would call it sin and sinful. She would also complain to her husband that I was always with him and he gave her no time. It seemed she was often driven to despair by him never being in on time and being very unreliable. He would often leave her for hours whilst we were at work out on jobs.
Conversation Over The Intercom
On one occasion Norman Garret’s mum complained to Mrs Knight the Norman her son, was not getting the training he needed because Ken was always taking me out with him. I heard this conversation over the shops intercom. Mrs Knight said yes I was a nuisance and she did not like me one bit and it was not good that I should be out with her husband all the time. Upon hearing this I felt angry and went down the stairs to where they were and confronted them both saying that I had heard what they had said about me. They were embarrassed and I am sure this did not help our relationship. I really thought Mrs Knight was an ogre.
I began to attend Luton College of Technology, to learn about Radio and Television Servicing, and travelled by bus, one day a week, from Aylesbury to Luton; it was about an hour and a half run. I think it must have been due to Mrs Knight and her religion that I began to notice the texts of scripture put up out side churches as I past by on the bus, they were called “Way Side Pulpits”. I began to memorize the verses such as:
“ Righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people”
And also another:
“ Jesus said if you find life difficult learn of me and the burden I shall give you will not be too difficult to carry”.
At that time I had no idea of the meaning of these texts of scripture but found it amusing to quote them to Mrs Knight at any inappropriate moment, in public, thinking it would embarrass her.
On one occasion I remember being dressed in an old blanket made into an undercoat from my brothers Mod anorak. I was standing on the corner of the street near to the workshop one Saturday morning with Mr and Mrs Knight. I quoted at the top of my voice these two scriptures in order to embarrass Mrs Knight. I am not sure how they felt about it but little did I know that one day I would learn the truth of these texts and become a preacher of the Gospel myself and this quotation contained the essence of gospel ministry.
Mrs Grace Knight became a great help to me and lived until 2001. Here is a link to a video of her funeral.
Obituary Grace Maude Knight
(Click to view)
4 Graces Funeral John Knight Obituary
5 Grace Mark Knight’s Obituary
A Confident 15 year old
I enjoyed working for Mr Knight because he seemed to appreciate my help and abilities and would trust me to drive the van at 15 years old. On one occasion he was short of a driver and had to deliver a television. So he dressed me up in a sheepskin coat and gave me dark glasses to wear with instructions to deliver a T.V. to a house in Quarendon. I was very pleased to do this even more when it turned out that I was delivering the T.V. set to one of my school friends called Gillespie.
On another occasion I was given the job of replacing a complete I.F. board on a new Ferguson 850 T.V. Receiver in a customers home. A qualified engineer in a workshop setting normally would have done this but this unconventional approach was normal to me. Mr Knight had complete confidence in me at the age of 15 years old. I am sure the customer was not at all happy at this 15 year old repairing their lovely brand new television receiver.
During this time I was still making music in the group and when I was 16 Mr Knight’s business failed and went into liquidation so I found myself another job. I got an apprenticeship with Sale and Mellor at a Radio a T.V. shop in Aylesbury. I worked there until I got in trouble with the police when I was sacked at the age of 17 years.
It was shortly after this time that I got into trouble with the police for breaking into a garage and stealing a motorbike. I had a Francis Barnett 150 CC, which had been stolen from the field where I kept it and a friend of mine told me that it was in this garage, along the Tring Road. At first I was just interested in getting my bike back but when I opened the garage door I was disappointed not to find it - just a 125 BSA Bantam.
I thought well its better than nothing so I decided to take it any way and wheeled it out of the garage and back to our field, to use it later. The police later caught me and for this first crime I was charged with garage breaking and put on probation for two years.