Betty Knight  R.I.P 1921-1991

During the Second World War, a young NCO at Bletchley worked away at cracking enemy codes under the blanket of secrecy hiding the activities of the Intelligence Corps.

The rest of Betty's life was much more open to our knowledge, as she shared with us her full and interesting life. She was born in Rushden where she grew up, coming to live in Higham Ferrers at the time of her marriage to Will Knight. Together, they were Mayor and Mayoress of the then separate Borough of Higham Ferrers, and Betty shared the public and social life of a leading industrialist in the leather trade. Together they served their church, he on the PCC of St. Mary's, she for a time as Churchwarden at Chelveston.

For a long time Betty was secretary of the Diocesan Church Union, and kept up that connection through to her death as a member of the Church Union Charismatic Fellowship, through which she was able to express her exhuberant response to Christian faith and worship. She was ever a devout and disciplined Anglo-Catholic, practising her faith in regular worship and in neighbourly concern. She visited the sick and aged, chauffered patients to hospital, and was ever ready with a listening ear and a shoulder to cry on.

Her love for God overflowed in a love for His children, and His creation. She was a "green" person, passionate in her support for conservation of the world, its animals and its vegetation. Her sprawling garden was as overcrowded with plants and flowers as her house was with things of beauty, and books and periodicals about conservation issues.

She loved company, openly needing others as they came to need her, especially in the lonely years after Will's death. She Alighted in her grand-daughter Rose, and was a wonderful mother to Jonathan and Celia with whom she shared a deep friendship.

Her sudden and untimely death has robbed us of a precious friend and an exemplary Christian. Our happy remembrances of Will and Betty will be reinforced in time by a memorial in church. Our prayers and our sympathy are with Celia and Jonathan and his family at this sad time.