One of St. Faith’s oldest members has sadly died.  Reg Knight, who was born in November 1915, died on Boxing Day 2009 in the Lister Hospital, Stevenage.

As a boy Reg attended the British School in Queen Street before transferring to Wilshere Dacre for his last year at school.  At the age of 14 he went to work for the wood machinery firm of Barker and Sons in Hermitage Road.  As a young man, sport was his great passion,  he played tennis and badminton as well as football and cricket.  He was a member of the now defunct St. John’s Church where he was a youth leader, Sunday School teacher and a member of the choir.  He knew his wife Eleanor during these years but they started courting in 1938 and married in 1940 at St. Mary’s Church.

During the war he was in the army in Egypt and Palestine and after he was demobbed he and Eleanor and their two daughters, Marion and Tricia moved to the prefabs in Desborough Road, and when their son John was born in 1947 they moved to Purwell Lane to a house that Reg lived in for the next 62 years until his death .

In the mid fifties he went to work for the E.S.A. in Stevenage until he retired in 1980. Reg was a man who loved to work with wood and was often making and repairing things at St. Faith’s church.  In the book written by Margaret Watson entitled “St Faith’s Church, 100 years at the Crossroads”  she describes how when Reg was enlisted to design and fit book rests to two of the choir pews he and his wife manoeuvred these over the quite considerable distance from church to his workshop in Purwell Lane by means of roller skates!

Both Reg and his wife Eleanor were members of St. Faith’s choir for over 30 years and with his rich bass voice it was a sad day when he gave up.  He also played many roles in St. Faith’s Music Hall productions, making scenery and props and singing along with us, sometimes taking centre stage in duets with Eleanor. He continued as an active church goer until well into his 90s, only giving up when the walk down the lane became too much as his health failed.

We give thanks for Reg, for his long years of faithful service to St. Faith’s and now may he rest in peace, reunited with his beloved Eleanor, our first lady church warden.

Mavis Duffin