An artist, engineer and musician, Wilfred Knox was born in Handsworth, Birmingham in 1884. He bore witness to the last days of sail, the re-emerging dominance of British maritime
merchant commerce and both world wars. While he worked with tools for the Royal Flying Corps during the big one, he went to his artistic profession for enjoyment. Painting primarily with watercolours and
gouache, and often working under the pseudonym A.D.Bell, under contract to Frost and Reed, his subjects were mainly the grand clipper ships, with occasional depictions of Venetian landscapes and the
World War I fighter planes he knew so well.
Knox died on October 30th 1966; a retrospective of over 50 of his works was held by Harper Fine Paintings at Poynton, Cheshire in November 1987.