While at the school, he was influenced by the works of Louis Ginnett and John Leopold Denman,[4] both of whom taught him and were later to become colleagues.

[7] In 1922, he was made a member of the Brighton Arts Club[4] along with his father; they put on an exhibition of their paintings in that year.

[3] In 1925, Knight won the Landseer Scholarship, and the Turner Gold Medal for his oil landscape titled Llangollen,[4] a work considered reminiscent in subject and style to Cotman.

[4] In the 1930s, he anonymously painted inn signs commissioned by the University of Birmingham Guild of Students for the Kemp Town Brewery's pubs 'The Grenadier' in Hove and the 'Friar's Oak' in Hassocks.

[4][8] During the Second World War, Knight became a member of the Home Guard as well as a night telephone operator for the Civil Defence, his teaching post keeping him reserved from active service.

Ten of his drawings made the final print, with his work being praised by William Russell Flint as the 'star turn' and by Kenneth Clark as the 'jewel in the crown'.

[10] In 1944, the Queen Mother invited Knight to teach Princess Margaret how to paint watercolours, holding classes at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace for three years from his appointment until the Royal Family's tour of South Africa brought them to an end.

[13][14] In 1946, at St Patrick's Church, Hove, he painted the Stations of the Cross to designs by Louis Ginnett, who had recently died.

[1] Knight never learned to drive a car, preferring to walk with his painting materials in a backpack and be immersed in the landscape.