A. E. Knight, as he was always referred to in the press, attended the King Edward VI Grammar School and played for Surrey at the age of 17. He joined local club Godalming after leaving school.[4] He began working for an insurance company and, through his job, moved to Portsmouth in 1908, and there Pompey snapped up the left-back, spending a season in the reserves before making his first-team debut in Southern League Division One.
After hostilities ended, Knight captained the Pompey side that won the 1919–20 Southern League championship, and if not for injury he would have led the side in their first Football League fixture.[citation needed]
He left Portsmouth in 1922, after a campaign that saw Portsmouth finish third in the Third Division South.[7] He played out the remainder of his football career with the Corinthians amateur club, who granted him life membership.[citation needed] He was posthumously inducted into the Pompey Hall of Fame in 2015.[8]
International career
Knight earned 30 amateur international caps.[9] He was a member of the English amateur side that won the gold medal in the 1912 Summer Olympics, featuring in all three matches and he could have scored in the semi-finals against Finland from the penalty spot, but he deliberately sent the kick over the bar on instructions from Vivian Woodward, his captain, because of the Corinthian belief that they could not accept the notion that any player would deliberately foul an opponent.[10] He also played for England in the 1920 Summer Olympics.[4] He gained one full England cap, captaining the side against Ireland in a British Home Championship game on 25 October 1919 at Windsor Park, Belfast, which ended in a 1–1 draw.[11] He had also captained England in a Victory International match against Wales on 11 October 1919.[12]
^Marshman, Jeff (28 March 2015). "Six of the Best Are Honoured by Blues". The News. Portsmouth: Johnston Publishing Ltd. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 19 November 2017 – via HighBeam Research.
^"Arthur Knight". England Football Online. Retrieved 20 November 2017.