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Laura, born 1893, seems to have been the only Knowles to try to continue the philoprogenitive tradition.
Here she is with my mother (Laura is on the right), around 1930.
Laura married one Joseph Jones, and they had six sons, then a daughter. They lived in Hednesford in a broken-down cottage called "Sunnyside". I think we visited her once, but I was very small and can only remember her standing in her kitchen with a rolling pin. I remember there being a great many children around: but this is probably a false memory, or else they were her grandchildren, as her own children must have been a full generation ahead of us.
One son died from a brain tumor at the age of seven. Another, Ron, was held prisoner of war by the Italians in World War Two. He is an instance of a very rare phenomenon: an English prisoner of war with nothing but praise for his captors. They even did their best to treat a chronic ear problem he suffered from, though apparently without success — he became deaf in middle age. Ron died of a heart attack in his fifties, leaving a widow and one son, another Ron.
The bright star of Laura's family was her youngest son, Neil. He was doing well and rising in the business world. Then he had an affair with the boss's secretary. When she dumped him he drove up to Cannock Chase and sat in his car with the engine running but the exhaust blocked up. Fortunately Laura had died the year before.
As of early 1999, Laura's daughter, Kathleen, was still living in Hednesford. The others are all dead.