Born on April 10, 1897, in Menston in Yorkshire, England, Eric Mowbray Knight was the third of four sons born to Frederic Harrison and Marion Hilda (Creasser) Knight.

Harrison and Knight both were Quakers.

His father was a rich diamond merchant who took his family on exotic foreign trips.

When Knight was two years old, his father, who had left his family to move to South Africa, was killed during the Boer War.

Because Frederick Knight had depleted the family's financial resources, Marion Knight moved to St. Petersburg, Russia, to work as a governess for the royal family, and Eric and his brothers remained in Yorkshire but were separated to stay with different relatives.

After living at several places, Eric Knight settled in with his temperamental uncle, who was a carter (a cart driver), and studied at the Bewerly School in Yorkshire where he became familiar...