Robert B. Knight was born in 1921 in Philadelphia.    He and his brother, William, became foster children of Mrs. Eleanor Lyons of Grove, Pennsylvania.

Mrs. Lyons, wife of the Reverend Cheeseman Lyons became the Foster Mother for a number of black children from Philadelphia.

She was the wife of the Reverend. Eleanor was born in Exton, and moved to West Chester, renting a house at 228 N. Franklin St. in the 1930’s.  In 1940 she moved to a house in Grove.  Her house was located behind the Grove Methodist Church Cemetery, at the South East corner of Grove and Boot Roads. The Church and Cemetery are still there today, but the house is long gone. Grove is a small community, 2 miles north of West Chester, between that town and Exton. 

Robert attended the United Holiness Church with his foster mother, located at 409 w. Market Street in West Chester.

Robert enlisted in the Army in August 1941.  After basic training he was attached to Company F, 366^th Infantry Regiment  The 366^th was activated in 1940 as an all black fighting unit and given all black officers – a first in US Army History.

On June 10, 1942, Private Robert B. Knight Died Non Battle in Maine.  He was accidentally killed by a train while patrolling a bridge over the Mattawaumbeag River, near Bancroft.

His body was returned to West Chester for burial on June 14^th, escorted from Maine by Corporal E. H. Williams.   Funeral Services were held on Tuesday June 16,1942 at the Robert M. Day Funeral Home,  located at 115 W. Chestnut St.

He was buried with full military honors at the National Cemetery for Soldiers in Philadelphia, Haines street and Limekiln Pike, approximately 2 miles north of  the Germantown community.  The Soldiers Cemetery, was one of 14 original National Cemetery’s established during the Civil War, primarily for soldiers who died in hospitals during that war.