Editing Airey Neave (section)

==Early life==
Neave was the son of [[Sheffield Airey Neave]] CMG, OBE (1879–1961),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/42606/pages/1649|title=The London Gazette, 23 February 1962}}</ref> an [[entomologist]], who lived at [[Ingatestone]], [[Essex]], and his wife Dorothy, the daughter of Arthur Thomson Middleton. His father was the grandson of [[Sheffield Neave]], the third son of Sir Thomas Neave, 2nd Baronet (see [[Neave baronets]]).

The family came to prominence as merchants in the West Indies during the 18th century and were raised to the baronetage during the life of [[Sir Richard Neave, 1st Baronet|Richard Neave]], [[Governor of the Bank of England]]. Neave spent his early years in [[Knightsbridge]] in London, before he moved to [[Beaconsfield]]. Neave was sent to [[St. Ronan's School]], [[Worthing]], and from there, in 1929, he went to [[Eton College]]. He went on to [[Reader (academic rank)|read]] [[Jurisprudence]] at [[Merton College, Oxford]].<ref name="MCreg">{{cite book|editor1-last=Levens|editor1-first=R. G. C.|title=Merton College Register 1900–1964|date=1964|publisher=Basil Blackwell|location=Oxford|pages=257–258}}</ref>

While at Eton, Neave composed a prize-winning essay in 1933 that examined the likely consequences of [[Adolf Hitler]]'s rise to supreme power in [[Germany]], and Neave predicted then that another widespread war would break out in Europe in the near future. Neave had earlier been on a visit to Germany, and he witnessed the [[Nazi German]] methods of grasping political and military power. At Eton, Neave served in the school cadet corps as a cadet [[lance corporal]], and received a [[Army Reserve (United Kingdom)|territorial]] commission as a [[second lieutenant]] in the [[Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry]] on 11 December 1935.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/34230/pages/7956|title=The London Gazette, 10 December 1935}}</ref>

When Neave went to [[Oxford University]], he purchased and read the entire written works of the general and military theorist [[Carl von Clausewitz]]. When Neave was asked why, he answered: "since war [is] coming, it [is] only sensible to learn as much as possible about the art of waging it".<ref>{{cite book |page=35 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yabg2_QNuXIC |title=Public Servant, Secret Agent: The elusive life and violent death of Airey Neave |author=Paul Routledge |publisher=Fourth Estate |year=2002 |isbn=9781841152448 |access-date=16 March 2016 |archive-date=25 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200725013148/https://books.google.com/books?id=yabg2_QNuXIC |url-status=live }}</ref> During 1938, Neave completed his third-class degree. By his own admission, while at Oxford University, he did only the minimum amount of academic work that was required of him by his tutors.