Sarah was born at home on the 3rd August 1966, four days after England’s historic World Cup win.

Esme, mum, was told by Roy, dad, that if she had a boy he would have 11 Christian names, one for each of the England squad! Threatened with this, Esme was especially thrilled that she had a baby girl!

Mary and Tim, then aged 6 and 4, were asked what name they would like to call the baby. After much deliberation it was a unanimous vote for Booboo, after the baby in the Flintstones.

Esme explained that they needed a sensible name, so Sarah Elizabeth was chosen. Although many knew her as Dr Sarah Knight OBE, to close friends and family Sarah was, for the whole of her life, known as Boo! 

We all loved having a baby sister. She was so sweet and gorgeous. As a toddler, Sarah was very timid and shy. Roy often worked away during this period so Sarah and Esme were very close and spent lots of time together.

As Sarah got a little older, she became the perfect little sister - compliant and very eager to please! There are famous family stories of Sarah willingly taking on the role of official test pilot, AKA crash test dummy, for Tim’s many hand-built go-carts and being launched down a steep hill near the family home!

Once old enough for the three children to be left at home for a while, Sarah was left in charge of the key for the telephone lock, only to be used in case of an emergency. Mary and Tim would bribe her to unlock it and spend the whole time on the telephone talking to their friends.

In 1976 Sarah started secondary school, a stressful time for most children but especially Sarah. How lucky was she that on her very first day she met Kaz, who spotted her frantically trying to get her mittens off by madly shaking both arms. This was never going to work as they were attached by wool threaded through the sleeves of her coat. Kaz thought, ‘she’s weird, I will sit with her.’ This was the beginning of a wonderful friendship that lasted until the very end.

It was like gaining another naughty little sister! They were expelled from Girl Guides for hiding a metal tie pin near the compass during the orienteering test; they collected jumble from neighbours and tied socks in trees around the village; dyed their hair on a weekly basis, ‘borrowed’ eggs to play blindfold kitchen egg Olympics; went on holidays together including pony trekking in Devon and they were packed off to stay with Mary. Latterly they enjoyed lots of lovely lazy spa days with Esme, Rosie and Mary too.

Sarah left school and studied photography at college. Unsure where life was going to take her, she moved to do a summer season at a holiday camp on the Isle of Wight. Sarah never left!

She met Russell and in 1989, they gave Roy the best birthday gift he could ever have, a beautiful baby girl, Rosie.

Sarah could not have loved her more. She threw herself into full time motherhood. Rosie was famously the best dressed child and the best daughter Sarah could ever have asked for. She always maintained that raising such a wonderful, caring, funny and smart human being was her greatest achievement. They were always best friends, went on lots of girlie outings and holidays together.

When Rosie started school, Sarah decided she would go back to education. She wanted a purpose, to achieve, to make a difference. She did A levels and in 1994 began a Psychology degree at Portsmouth University. She was told at the beginning of the course that generally the mature students didn’t tend to achieve great heights. Determined and hard-working, Sarah was awarded a first-class honours degree. After graduation Sarah began working at the university, teaching and working on many internal and external projects, ultimately becoming a Visiting Research Fellow.

But a degree wasn’t enough for Sarah. She went on to do her PhD, culminating in her thesis, “The Basis & Nature of Attitudes toward Animal Use: A Psychological Approach,” achieving her doctorate in 2006.

Sarah joined DSTL in 2009. We’ll hear about this from Andy in a moment. All we ever knew was that she found the work interesting and fulfilling. Since her passing we have found out so many amazing facts about her work that she was never allowed to divulge. It was sometimes like hearing about someone we didn’t know. In Sarah’s last days we took turns to read the stories and messages of love and support she received from colleagues and friends. We genuinely had no idea of the impact she was having on national security.

During this time, in the summer of 1992, two momentous events occurred in the family. Mary met Mark and Sarah met Geoff.

To help fund her education Sarah took on a part time job at the Canoe Lake Cafe, owned by Cis, Sid and their son, Geoff. Geoff took an instant like to the new girl and engineered it to bump into her at the opening of the Balcony nightclub.

Geoff was instantly smitten. It took Sarah a little longer to recognise all of Geoff’s charms. They soon became inseparable. Sarah introduced Geoff to Rosie, then aged three who called him the ‘Big Boy,’ because he always wore shorts!

Much deliberation was had by the girls regarding their respective new boyfriends over the following months. They were famously always in trouble when the telephone bill arrived.

In order to actually see Geoff during the summer months Sarah still helped out on a regular basis in the cafes he was running, right up until he retired last year.

Sarah and Geoff moved in together in 1996 and married in 2002. Geoff organised for a special guest at the wedding, Sarah’s gorgeous horse Chester, much to the disappointment of the children, who for some reason thought it was going to be Robbie Williams.

Sarah then officially became step-mum to Lindsay, and together with Rosie created many happy memories. From takeaway nights on a Friday, to camel rides in Lanzarote.

In 1996 and 1999 Sarah’s beloved nephews, Toby and Joe, were born. Much time was spent with Rosie and the boys, particularly on the beach as they loved coming to the Island, when they were older on their own with a friend for their summer holidays.

Sarah was particularly proud and supportive of them in their bands and travelled for miles to spend evenings in venues and muddy fields to watch them perform.

In 2007, Sarah became Nanny to the lovely Lola. She embraced the role. When Lola was young, one of Sarah’s favourite days out was taking Lola and a friend to a theme park. A particular favourite was Paulton’s Park where even Sarah could enjoy the toddler’s rides like the tea cup. As soon as anything bigger, faster and scarier became involved, Sarah had the job as the official bag minder, waiting while everyone else enjoyed themselves, particularly on the family trips to Florida. If you get an opportunity, do ask Geoff to recall the story of the day he persuaded Sarah to go on the ‘Big One’ at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

Sarah loved going on holiday, many family ones to Florida, Greenland, Africa to visit Tim, Spain, Devon and Egypt to name a few. Sarah and Geoff travelled together far and wide, including many parts of the USA, usually starting in New York, Sarah’s favourite city.

One of their annual trips, much to everyone’s amusement, was to pack up the dog and drive around five miles from home to a posh caravan for a week of rest and relaxation.

Sarah took up cold water swimming. Everyone thought she was bonkers! Most days, year-round, whatever the weather, she could be spotted wearing nothing more than a pair of gloves, a pair of socks, a bikini and her famous woolly hat, swimming along in the sea at Ryde or Bembridge, happy as Larry!

As a family, music plays a big part in our lives, the radio is always on and live music was a particular passion of Sarah’s. We all went to many gigs and festivals over the years. Sarah and Geoff even travelled to the USA to see their favourites.

Possibly Sarah’s biggest passion is her love of animals. From the smallest - only Sarah could have a gadget to gently suck spiders and bugs from inside the house into a container so they could be safely released into the garden.

Having her first horse on loan aged 12, her treat to herself when she graduated was to buy the beautiful Chester, who she loved and cared for for 26 years. Joining him for the past ten years has been Puzzle, the giant horse with the biggest heart.

Sarah was never happier than when she was at her stables, knee deep in horse poo, mucking out and giving the boys a jolly good bath and brush. She had a succession of beautiful, pampered smaller pets too - Frilly, Bat and Missy the cats, lots of treasured rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs and Terry the tortoise, the trickiest one of all to look after.

Sarah’s beloved Bear dog and last but not least the adorable Shadow. Named because when he arrived from Spain, he instantly became Sarah’s shadow, he knew she loved him straight away. Only Sarah could fall in love with the photograph of a 10 stone, three-legged, big brown eyed boy, she instinctively knew he was the one for her.

So, how can we ever do justice and summarise Sarah, this wonderful person we have all cruelly lost?

She loved her family and friends, music, animals, being outdoors, the feeling that she was making a difference.

We are all so proud of her incredible achievements, the highlight must be receiving her OBE from King Charles in October 2023

We all loved her for being so kind, compassionate, funny, loving and a little bit dipsy.

She was the best wife, daughter, mother, little sister, auntie, nanny, cousin, niece and friend any of us could wish for.

We all love her so much and our lives can never be the same again.