[9][10] He was the 5th child (and 5th son) of William Knox, a cabinet maker and Ann Carmichael in Cronkbourne village, Braddan.

William Knox, "an exceptionally ingenious cabinet and machine-maker, joined Moore’s Tromode Works, makers of high quality herring nets and sailcloth.

Besides running a successful steamboat and ferry business, the Knox family mechanised the local fishing fleet, were pioneers in industrial electric lighting on Man and introduced the first motor car to the island.

As a young teacher at Douglas he befriended the headmaster and antiquarian, Canon John Quine, and they would go on regular expeditions to explore sites.

[21] From 1900 to 1904 Knox returned to the Isle of Man, and produced over 400 designs directly for Liberty of London, most notably for the Cymric and Tudric ranges.

[23][24] Their Cymric catalogue stated, “The feature of this development is, its complete breaking away from convention in the matter of design treatment”.

[24] "Knox and his colleagues whether they be his fellow designers at the Silver Studio or the Liberty management who gave their undoubted support, had moved the Arts and Crafts stylistic principles one stage further forward and in so doing, had created a distinctive British version of Art Nouveau" (V&A)[25] This work contributed to Liberty's aim of "the production of useful and beautiful objects at prices within the reach of all classes."

[26] Knox had an innovative method of teaching art: he collected a set of three thousand glass slides, of examples of design work, to show his students.

Not until this Self Nature was expressed was the work produced complete, distinctive by its individuality, glowing as a stone mined from the recesses of the unknown.

"[28] Knox had a profound and intertwining interest in the natural world and landscape, the spiritual life, and the history and art of the Isle of Man and particularly the early Celtic Christian Church.

He described this connection in his illuminated 1913 poem "Renshent", written about an early Celtic Christian keeill (chapel) on the Isle of Man.

They rediscovered, reconstructed and reinterpreted history and traditions to bolster Manx cultural distinctiveness and devolved political status in the face of economic and social influences from the British Empire and the thousands of visitors to the Island's booming tourism industry.

While living in Sulby (1902-1905),[32] Knox wrote of his watercolours that 'the places painted are within short walks from my home, passed often; one day something never seen before; some new appearance of colour and the bends of the sky.

A collection of them sold originally for £5 each were auctioned in Exeter for several thousand pounds, early in the 21st century, some of them returning to the island.

In 1913, he spent a year in the United States, and on his return to Man acted as a censor of internees' letters during World War I.

Knox died of heart failure in 1933 in Douglas, Isle of Man[citation needed] and was buried in Braddan Cemetery.

[40] Cadran Cottage, Ballanard Road in Douglas, remodelled c.1910 with design by Knox, was listed as a Registered Building of the Isle of Man in 1996.

[43] To this end the Society has given lectures, (including an international tour), published journals and helped to organise exhibitions.

To celebrate the 150th Anniversary of Knox's birth, the Isle of Man Post Office issued a set of 10 stamps featuring his designs, released in April 2014.

A spokesperson for the awarding committee said, "He took the Isle of Man's Celtic and Norse art history and brought it back to life, revamping and reinvigorating it almost a millennium after the original artists had passed."