Dick
Knight
Interview
LE: I am with Dick Knight, who Des Lynam refers to as
the man that saved a football club. We’ll come on to that
later…for now tell us about your childhood and what it
was like growing up?
DK: I was born just before the start of the Second
World War when my dad went off to join the Royal Air
Force. So for many years I didn’t see him much of him.
I grew up seeing the Battle of Britain and watching the
planes dogfight over Brighton. I went to St Nicholas
School in Portslade and that was my junior school. I
remember as a schoolboy I was down near Victoria
Park in Portslade watching General Montgomery
speaking to the troops before they went off to do the
D-Day landings. I doubt if that is recorded in the history
archives of Portslade but it’s where I actually grew up
and that was a momentous occasion at the time. The
park was full of troops and I remember sitting on the
bank by the Old Shoreham Road with my friend taking
this all in, listening to General Montgomery giving a
rousing speech to all the soldiers. What we did not
know as little boys was that a lot of those guys died
saving us. We were bombed in Portslade as well and
next door the house was wiped out. When the war
ended, I went to Hove Grammar School and did okay. I
was academically quite bright, but I did used to get very
average results because I was more interested in sport.
If you were in the classes overlooking the playing field
it was very easy to get distracted. I got in to the school
football and cricket teams and because I was more
interested in sport and wasn’t paying enough attention,
I got demoted from the A class! For the first time, that
spurred me on to pay attention to my education, so
I ended up getting ten O Levels and stayed on to do
A Levels. When my dad came back from the Second
World War one of the first things he did was to take me
to watch Brighton & Hove Albion - many years later,
he told me that what kept him going was the thought
that one day he would take his son to see his beloved
Albion. I mean my dad was a big Albion fan, and so
was his father.
LE: The first game you went to was beating Mansfield
Town 5-0 at the Goldstone Ground wasn’t it?
DK: Exactly, I always remember coming up this slope
to the entrance on the east terrace and seeing all
these people there and the players running out. The
atmosphere was magic.
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