Annie Knight

Annie Knight
Birth:	6 June 1895 Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Death:	27 November 2006 Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
Age:	111 years, 174 days
Country:	UK
Validated

Annie Isabella Knight (6 June 1895 – 27 November 2006) was a British supercentenarian who was the oldest living person in the United Kingdom at the time of her death. Her age has been validated by the Gerontology Research Group.

Biography

Knight was born on 6 June 1895 in Glasgow, Scotland. Her family moved to Aberdeen when her father was given a job at an engineering plant. Knight was As a young woman, Knight was an active suffragette, attending demonstrations and helping to organise meetings.

Knight worked in a department store while studying from home for a degree from the London School of Music. She later worked as a piano teacher. She met her husband, William, during the First World War while he was on leave from the Royal Engineers, and they married in 1918. The couple had two sons, Harold and Bill, and were married until William's death in the 1980s.

Knight reportedly held strong political views. As well as being an outspoken advocate of women's rights, she was also a staunch Scottish Nationalist. In the 1960s, she helped to run Radio Free Scotland, a pirate radio station, from her living room as a protest against the Scottish National Party (SNP) being excluded from the airwaves.

After her husband's death, Knight moved to the Royal Cornhill Hospital, Aberdeen. She put her long life down to a diet of "porridge, no alcohol, and the occasional sweet". She died on 27 November 2006 at the age of 111 years, 174 days. Her funeral was attended by then-SNP leader and future First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond.

Longevity Records

Knight became the oldest living person in Scotland following the death of 113 year-old Lucy d'Abreu on 7 December 2005. She subsequently became the oldest living person in the whole of the United Kingdom following the death of 111 year-old Emmeline Brice on 26 July 2006, a title she held for the last four months of her life. Following Knight's death, Ada Mason became the UK's oldest living person.

References

• Gerontology Research Group
• All Validated Supercentenarians Oldest in Britain
• Birthday 111 for 'oldest' woman BBC News, 6 June 2006
• Former suffragette becomes Britain's oldest woman The Telegraph, 4 August 2006
• 'Oldest' woman dies at age of 111 BBC News, 29 November 2006
• Oldest person in Britain dies, aged 111 The Independent, 30 November 2006
• Brewing up a storm in a teapot Financial Times, 4 December 2006

United Kingdom's Oldest Living Person Titleholders (V • E)

Frederick Stabbins • Jane Lister • Martha Truelove • Ann Sharp • Jane Raby • Frances Smith • William Walker • Ann Russell • Eliza Roff • Ellen Palmer • Rachel MacArthur • Rachel Swain • Mary Davey • Thomas Pope • John Francklow • Rebecca Lees • Sarah Fitt • Elizabeth Sellwood • Matilda Coppins • Elizabeth Whitehead • Emma Rooke • Margaret Lunn • Sarah Humphrey • Caroline Beale • Fanny Hopkins • Elizabeth Etheridge • Sophia Wellstead • Rhoda Harris • Emma Weeks • Edith Grellier • Mary Worthington • Jane Stoneman • Ellen Dart • Elizabeth Kensley • Hannah Smith • John Mosley Turner • Ada Roe • Alice Stevenson • Elizabeth Watkins • Frederick Butterfield • Rose Heeley • Agnes Helyar • James Harrow • Sarah Morgan • Lilias Williams • Florence Pannell • Jeanetta Thomas • Alice Brewster • Anna Eliza Williams • Kate Begbie • Charlotte Hughes • Daisy Adams • Rebecca Hewison • Annie Scott • Rachel Wieselberg • Lucy Askew • Annie Jennings • Eva Morris • Amy Hulmes • Nellie Bradley • Gladys Hawley • Lucy d'Abreu • Judy Ingamells • Emmeline Brice • Annie Knight • Ada Mason • Florrie Baldwin • Eunice Bowman • Annie Turnbull • Elsie Steele • Margaret Fish • Violet Wood • Grace A Jones • Ethel Lang • Gladys Hooper • Bessie Camm • Olive Boar • Grace C Jones • Gwen Payne • Hilda Clulow • Bob Weighton • Joan Hocquard • Lilian Priest • Gertrude Kingston • Mollie Walker • Ethel Caterham