Knox was the eldest son of
Edmund Arbuthnott Knox, a descendant of
John Arbuthnott, 8th Viscount of Arbuthnott. He was a brother of the Roman Catholic priest and author
Ronald Knox, the codebreaker
Dilly Knox, the Anglican priest and New Testament scholar
Wilfred Knox, the author
Winifred Peck, and Ethel Knox. His daughter, the novelist
Penelope Fitzgerald, wrote a biography of the four brothers titled
The Knox Brothers. He was educated at
King Edward's School, Birmingham and
Rugby. His first marriage was in 1912 to Christina Frances Hicks, born 1885. They had children
Penelope Fitzgerald (born 1916, died 2000) and Edmund Rawle Valpy Knox (journalist, died 5 June 1994). Christina died in 1935. He remarried in 1937, to
Mary Shepard, illustrator of
Mary Poppins and daughter of
E.H. Shepard who illustrated
Winnie the Pooh and
The Wind in the Willows. He served in the Lincolnshire Regiment during the
First World War, and
Punch reported in October 1917 that he had been wounded. As a poet, he was noted for his ability to provide topical satirical poems for
Punch in the style of well-known contemporary poets such as
John Drinkwater,
John Masefield,
Walter de la Mare,
Edmund Blunden,
Robert Bridges and
J. C. Squire – usually managing to evoke the poet's general style and manner without resorting to parodying any particular poem. Although best known for satire, some of his more serious poems, written during the
Second World War while he held the editor's chair at
Punch, evoke by turns wistful nostalgia, grim determination, and a longing for eventual peace, often using metres from Greek or Latin poetry or historical English forms. Although for the greater part of his life an agnostic, he gradually drifted back into the Church of England. During the mid 1930s he edited the book series
Methuen's Library of Humour. ==Books==