Obituary: Moira Knox, Edinburgh councillor

Moira Knox, Edinburgh Fringe stalwart whose strong views had huge influence on success of shows. Picture: TSPL

Moira Knox was for years one of best known names on the Edinburgh Fringe. She could generate ticket sales like few other performers. It was not that she ever had a show in the festival, but a few words of outrage from the redoubtable Conservative councillor and moral guardian would seemingly have audiences flocking to whichever production was the latest to attract her wrath.

Comedian and Fringe veteran Mervyn Stutter described her as “legendary” in an article on The Huffington Post site a few years ago. “Her public objections to ‘naughty’ shows always guaranteed big box-office,” he said.

But her heyday was back in the 1980s and 1990s, when she represented Davidson’s Mains on the local authority and was undoubtedly one of the best known characters on the city council at that time. She was a big fan of Margaret Thatcher, with whom she regularly corresponded and on whom she seemingly modelled both her politics and her appearance.

She always outspoken, but was best known for her criticism of Fringe shows that peddled “filth” as art and entertainment. She did not have to have seen a show to know that it was offensive. As long as a journalist could relay the details second or third hand she would provide the words of condemnation.

Back in 1997, the Independent newspaper carried an A to Z of the Fringe, with K reserved for Moira Knox. “Every year she will find a show offensive and call for it to be banned,” it said. “The show will then sell out on the tidal wave of publicity she creates, leading some to believe that she is actually on the payroll of a shrewd marketing man. I’m sure some performers, with an eye on ticket sales, deliberately try to wind her up.”

Nudity was a surefire way to get Knox’s dander up. “I’m not a prude but if nudity was acceptable we’d all be walking around without any clothes on, wouldn’t we?” she reasoned, ignoring the outside temperature in Edinburgh, even at the height of the Scottish summer.

However she was no Philistine and served on the boards or committees of various arts organisations, including the official Edinburgh International Festival, which regularly presented events on stage that would not be acceptable in everyday life, including plays by Willam Shakespeare.

Her father was a sports journalist who wrote for the Daily Express under the name Waverley and she was born Moira Buchan Murray Gallagher In Glasgow in 1930. She worked as a secretary at the Scottish Amicable Life Assurance Society and married her boss Malcolm Knox in 1956.

He was a member of Edinburgh Council before she was. He was elected as a Progressive in the days before the Conservative Party put up candidates in local elections in the city and was city treasurer and a baillie. She followed him into politics and was a local councillor for about 20 years. She became an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list of June 1989 for political and public service.

Although nudity, bad language and blasphemy made her “beyond angry”, one of her most celebrated clashes was with the modern American circus “freak” Jim Rose, whose show involved hammering nails into various of his body parts, parts the very exposure of which could in itself cause offence. She attended one of his shows after being alerted to it by a mysterious organisation called Parental Care.

She was best known for her stance on public decency and her outraged comments, which would sometimes end up on the posters for the shows that she condemned, as if they were five-star reviews. Less well known was her interest in animal welfare.

She was active in the International League for the Protection of Horses and campaigned for reforms on international animal transportation, including provision of food and water and maximum journey times. She personally had a series of poodles, including Pinto, who she sometimes took to the city chambers with her.

She served as secretary of the Conservative group on Edinburgh Council and worked hard as a fund-raiser within Edinburgh West party. When she announced in 1997 that she would be standing down at the next elections a Fringe spokeswoman said: “She will be sadly missed. She has generated more copy for errant Fringe companies than anyone else.’’

Despite retiring from the council, Knox was still happy to offer words of condemnation on request. However in 2002 she said that she was receiving fewer and fewer calls about “filth” on the Fringe, which she took as evidence that visiting companies had taken notice of her criticism and cleaned up their act, though many might argue that standards had changed and what was once regarded as outrageous no longer caused much in the way of comment.

Her husband predeceased her. They did not have children. Latterly Knox moved to Crieff to live in a home with her elder sister Violet, who survives her.