Sir Arthur William Knight (29 March 1917 – 5 April 2003) was a British businessman who became chairman of

Courtaulds Courtaulds was a United Kingdom-based manufacturer of fabric, clothing, artificial fibres, and chemicals. It was established in 1794 and became the world's leading man-made fibre production company before being broken up in 1990 into Courtaulds ...

Career

Educated at

Tottenham County School Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Walthamst ...

and the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

, Knight saw action with the

Special Operations Executive The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its pu ...

in North Africa during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. After service with the Control Commission for Austria he joined

where he became Finance Director in 1961, Deputy Chairman in 1970 and Chairman in 1975. After retiring from Courtaulds he became Chairman of the

National Enterprise Board The National Enterprise Board (NEB) was a United Kingdom government body. It was set up in 1975 by the Labour government of Harold Wilson, to support the government's interventionist approach to industry. In 1981 the Conservative government of Mar ...

in 1979 but, after finding himself undermined by ministers and by other board members, he resigned in November 1980. He was knighted in the

1975 Birthday Honours The Queen's Birthday Honours 1975 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. They were published on 6 June 1975 for ...

and died in April 2003.

Family

In 1945, he married Joan Osborne (née Oppenheim); they had a son and three daughters. After the death of his first wife, he married Sheila Whiteman in 1972.

References

1917 births 2003 deaths Alumni of the London School of Economics Knights Bachelor {{UK-economist-stub