Bernard MacGregor Walker Knox was an English classicist, author, and critic who became an American citizen. He was the first director of the Center for Hellenic Studies and was selected for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities, in 1992.

Knox was born in Bradford, England, and graduated in classics from the University of Cambridge in 1936. During the Spanish Civil War, he traveled to Paris to join the brigadistas defending the Spanish Republic against fascism. He was assigned to Madrid and participated in the Battle of Ciudad Universitaria with the XI Brigade. His accounts were crucial to understanding the development of events. After the Spanish war, he moved to the United States and enlisted in the army following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Knox served in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), aiding in the coordination of the French Resistance with the allies during the Normandy landings and later in Northern Italy with the partisans against Mussolini.

Following World War II, motivated by the discovery of a copy of Virgil's Georgics, Knox returned to the United States to dedicate himself to the study of classical culture, particularly Greek. He earned his doctorate from Yale University and joined Harvard University, where he founded and directed the Center for Hellenic Studies from 1962 to 1985. Knox authored numerous books and articles and received many awards.

Knox was married to American novelist Betty Baur, who wrote under the name Bianca van Orden. His military service during World War II spanned from private to captain and he was awarded a Croix de Guerre.