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Hilda
Born: Address:- ?
Married:- 12th July 1924 to Benjamin-(Ben)-Rayner-Knights: at St Marks: Hall Road: Lakenham:- Entry 376
At the time of marriage Benjamin-Rayner-Knights was age 25 and a Coal Trimmer ? address given 61 Rackham Road
Witnesses:- Robert-Knights (Father) Blacksmith, Edward-Taylor (Father) Labourer, Alfred-Smith-Knights and Emma-Sopia-Taylor (Sister)

Hilda (Taylor) and Ben lived on Rackham Road: Norwich.

1911: Census - 114 Goldwell Road, Norwich
Edward Taylor - Head - age 41 - Ladour, Mustard - born Norwich, Norfolk
Emma E. Taylor - Wife - age 42 - born Norwich, Norfolk
Maude Emma Taylor - Daughter - age 20 - Mustrd Hand - born Norwich, Norfolk
Edward John Taylor - Son - age 19 - Shop Assistant - born Norwich, Norfolk
Flourence H. Taylor - Daughter - age 17 - Tailoress - born Norwich, Norfolk
Arthur Edward Taylor - Son - age 15 - Box Labolar - born Norwich, Norfolk
John Thomas Taylor - age 14 - Errand Boy - born Norwich, Norfolk
Emma S. Taylor - Daughter - age 12 - Scholar - born Norwich, Norfolk
Ether M. Taylor - Daughter - age 11 - Scholar - born Norwich, Norfolk
Hilda Taylor - Daughter - age 9 - Scholar - born Norwich, Norfolk
Willaim E. Taylor - Son - age 8 - Scholar - born Norwich, Norfolk
Dorothy K Taylor - Daughter - age - Scholar - born Norwich, Norfolk7
Ernest C. Taylor - Son - age 5 - Scholar - born Norwich, Norfolk
Gertrude W. Taylor - Daughter - age 3 - born Norwich, Norfolk

More on Benjamin Rayner Knights

Benjamin's father and grandparents
1881: Census - 1, Waterlane, Little Plumstead Blofield Norfolk
Rayner Knights - Head - Married - age 57 (1824) - Ag Lab - born Deopham, Norfolk
Charlotte Knights - Wife - age 55 (1826) - Ag Lab Wife - born Forncett St Mary, Norfolk
Robert Knights - Son - Single - age 27 (1854) - Ag Lab - born Forncett St Mary, Norfolk
Horatio Knights - Son - Single - age 21 (1860) - Ag Lab - born Forncett St Mary, Norfolk
Alfred Knights - Son - age 14 (1867) - Ag Lab - born Forncett St Mary, Norfolk
Horace Knights - Son - age 4 (1877) - born Norwich, Norfolk

Benjamin's mother
1881: Census - 2, Long Rd, Great Plumstead Blofield Norfolk
Benjamin Smith - Head - Married - age 62 (1819) - Railway Gate Keeper (Level Crossing Man) - born Alburgh, Norfolk
Mary Smith - Wife - age 58 (1823) - born Campsall, Yorkshire
Charles Smith - Son - age 15 (1866) - born Wortwell, Norfolk
Martha Smith - Daughter - Single - age 22 (1859) - Dressmaker - born Alburgh, Norfolk
Mary Smith - Grand Daughter - age 7 (1874) - Scholar - born Wortwell, Norfolk - is this Matha's daughter?

Benjamin's parents
1884: Marriage record - Robert Knights married Martha Smith at Blofield - Jun quarter (4b 373)

1900: Birth record - Benjamin Rayner Knights at St. Faiths - Jun quarter (4b 93)

1911: Census - 61 Rackham Road Norwich Norfolk
Robert Knights - Head - married 27 years - age 56 (1855) - Gardener - born Forncett St Mary
Martha Knights - Wife - age 52 (1859) - born Alburgh
Alfred Smith Knights - Son - Single - age 21 (1890) - Baker - born Sprowston
Benjamin Rayner Knights - Son - Scollar - age 10 (19010 - School - born Old Catton

More on Children

1/ Hilda L. Knights
1946: Hilda married Allen L. Pampling at Norwich - Jun quarter (4b 452
Hilda and Allen had children:

1/ Joan D Pampling born 1947 at Norwich - Jun quarter (4b 1165)
2/ Christine A. Pampling born 1949 at Norwich - Mar quarter (4b 836)
3/ Michael A. Knights born 1951 at Norwich - Sep quarter (4b 784)

2/ Joan Knights:- Born 1926:- Joan was killed in an air raid on Baxter & Webster's shoe factory in 1942. It was reported that when her body was found Joan did not have a mark on her.
1942: Joan died:- age 16

Eastern Evening News

Tributes to a smashing girl by DEREK JAMES - 16 August 2007 15:10

Joan Kinghts, aged 15, with her parents Hilda and Ben and sister Hilda. This is the happy-go-lucky tomboy who went to work in Norwich on a Saturday morning so her sister could spend some time with her future husband Alan, home on leave from the services, and never returned.
Joan Knights was killed when the shoe factory she was working at, Batson & Webster, received a direct hit. She died alongside George Smith, the 43-year-old machine room foreman, in September 1942.
Last month I told how George's son, Ron Smith, had asked for a plaque remembering the pair to be put up at the new St Edmunds Wharf development in Fishergate where the factory once stood.
The developers Tiger Hill agreed but Ron said he would love to find friends or relatives that Joan had so he could tell them she was finally being remembered.
“I wondered if any of your readers could help. I cannot find anyone who knew Joan,” he said.
The response following my story was extraordinary with my friends and members of her family getting in touch to say how pleased they were that Joan was finally being remembered.
The studio photograph of Joan was taken at Jerome's famous studios in Norwich in 1941, the year before she was killed.
The other picture is of Joan with older sister Hilda. They both worked at the Batson & Webster shoe factory after leaving school.
The pictures come from their cousin Derek Roe, a former Lakenham boy, who now lives at Hethersett.
And other pictures come from Carole Fowler (Thouless) who shared a home with the family in Rackham Road.
“I was born in July 1942 and apparently Joan looked after me before her death,” she said.
“I couldn't quite believe it when I saw your story. I am so pleased that Joan is being remembered after all these years. It is marvellous,” said Derek, now 80.
“We came from a large family. Her mother and my mother were sisters. We would always spend Christmas Day and Boxing Day together,” he recalled.
“Joan was a smashing girl. A real, happy-go-lucky tomboy who loved playing with us boys at Lakenham. The last time I saw her was when we bumped into each other in Red Lion Street. Then we heard she was killed. We were all heartbroken,” said Derek.
And he said that it had been Hilda's turn to work that day but Joan said she would go in so her sister could spend some time with her then boyfriend who was home on leave.
Her parents were Ben and Hilda Knights. He worked for Betts, the coal merchants, and the family lived at Rackham Road in Norwich. And Derek said he remembered that sister Hilda's husband was later honoured after he drove a petrol tanker away from a fire.

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I’m proud to share name of my hero dad - by DEREK JAMES - 21 August 2007

The scene at Frazier’s Joinery after it was hit, claiming four lives on September 5, 1942. If you look closely you can see people on the right – it gives you an idea of how large the factory was.
He was a young man who came to Norwich to escape the bombing… and was killed as he was working at a city factory on a Saturday morning.
His name was Kenneth George Belding, and four months after his death his son was born and named after the father he never met.
“I am very proud to share his name,” said Kenneth, who lives at Caistor St Edmund.
My stories about that savage bombing raid over Norwich on September 5, 1942 provoked enormous interest and prompted so many calls and letters.
It all started when Ron Smith told of his campaign to have a plaque put up on a new development of homes at Fishergate where the Batson & Webster shoe factory once stood.
His father George Smith had been killed in the same raid, along with a 15-year-old girl called Joan Knights. He appealed for anyone who knew anything about Joan to get in touch.
So many of you did.
Although it was 65 years ago people have never forgotten young Joan, who was killed when a bomb fell in the courtyard at the factory - demolishing a cycle shed, blowing a car into the street and flinging cycles on a roof.
A fire-watcher's brick look-out post was blown over trapping a number of workers. George, a foreman and special constable, and Joan were killed and 14 others injured.
Victims included Kenneth Belding, who came to Norwich to escape the London bombing.
But there were more deaths at Frazier's Joinery Works at St Martin's Palace Plain by the river where production was in full swing that fateful Saturday morning when raid 36 of the war happened.
“I was very interested to read your article as my dad was killed,” said Kenneth.
His father was a Londoner who signed up for the Army at the start of the war. He had part of his big toe amputated and wasn't fit for service. He was discharged so he came to Norwich to escape the bombing.
Despite arriving during the dreadful Blitz year of 1942, he met and married Vera, got himself a work in the joinery works and the couple found a home in the city. Then Vera discovered she was having a baby.
Kenneth never lived to see his baby.
“His body was recovered from the river a week later. My granddad had to identify the body and he could only do this because of the big toe being missing,” said Kenneth.
There were a total of four workers at the joinery works that Saturday and anther man who lost his life was Stephen Toole, aged 39.
One of his three daughters, June Rose, said it came as quite a shock to see the photograph of the works following the hit as she had never seen it before.
“I understand that my father had gone into work on that Saturday morning to help a young apprentice,” said June.
She was eight years old at the time and remembers an official, maybe from the factory, calling at their house at lunchtime that Saturday to break the news to her mother.
“My two sisters and I were not allowed to go to our father's funeral,” she added.
She understands that her father had been also been a fireman helping to put out the fires as Norwich burned that year and that the fire service was represented at his funeral.
During the same raid bombs also fell on the Magdalen Street area causing shoppers to run for their lives and a another bomb fell on Leamon's furniture factory in Calvert Street. The premises had previously been gutted by fire and this time the outside walls came crashing down.