Editing Benjamin Britten (section)

==Early years==
[[File:Birthplace of Benjamin Britten.JPG|thumb|Britten's birthplace in Lowestoft, which was the Britten family home for more than twenty years]]
Britten was born in the fishing port of [[Lowestoft]] in [[Suffolk]], on the east coast of England on 22 November 1913,{{Sfn|Matthews|2003|p=1}} the feast day of [[Saint Cecilia]], the patron saint of music.{{Sfn|Kennedy|1983|p=2}} He was the youngest of four children of Robert Victor Britten (1877–1934) and his wife Edith Rhoda, ''née'' Hockey (1874–1937).{{Efn|Britten's siblings were (Edith) Barbara (1902–82), Robert Harry Marsh ("Bobby", 1907–87), and (Charlotte) Elizabeth ("Beth", 1909–89).{{Sfn|Evans|2009|p=513}}}} Robert Britten's youthful ambition to become a farmer had been thwarted by lack of capital, and he had instead trained as a dentist, a profession he practised successfully but without pleasure. While studying at [[Charing Cross Hospital]] in London he met Edith Hockey, the daughter of a [[civil service]] clerk in the British Government's [[Home Office]]. They were married in September 1901 at [[St John's, Smith Square]], London.{{Sfn|Powell|2013|p=3}}

The consensus among biographers of Britten is that his father was a loving but somewhat stern and remote parent.<ref>{{Harvnb|Carpenter|1992|pp=4, 7}}; {{Harvnb|Kildea|2013|p=4}}; {{Harvnb|Matthews|2003|p=2}}; and {{Harvnb|Powell|2013|pp=10–11}}.</ref> Britten, according to his sister Beth, "got on well with him and shared his wry sense of humour, dedication to work and capacity for taking pains."{{Sfn|Blyth|1981|p=36}} Edith Britten was a talented amateur musician and secretary of the Lowestoft Musical Society.<ref>{{Harvnb|Kildea|2013|p=4}}; and {{Harvnb|Matthews|2003|p=3}}.</ref> In the English provinces of the early 20th century, distinctions of social class were taken very seriously. Britten described his family as "very ordinary middle class", but there were aspects of the Brittens that were not ordinary: Edith's father was illegitimate, and her mother was an alcoholic; Robert Britten was an agnostic and refused to attend church on Sundays.{{Sfn|Carpenter|1992|pp=4–5}} Music was the principal means by which Edith Britten strove to maintain the family's social standing, inviting the pillars of the local community to musical soirées at the house.<ref name="p7">{{Harvnb|Powell|2013|p=7}}.</ref>

When Britten was three months old he contracted [[pneumonia]] and nearly died.{{Sfn|Matthews|2003|p=3}} The illness left him with a damaged heart,{{Sfn|Carpenter|1992|p=6}} and doctors warned his parents that he would probably never be able to lead a normal life.{{Sfn|Blyth|1981|p=25}} He recovered more fully than expected, and as a boy was a keen tennis player and cricketer.<ref>{{Harvnb|Blyth|1981|p=25}}; and {{Harvnb|Powell|2013|p=16}}.</ref> To his mother's great delight he was an outstandingly musical child, unlike his sisters, who inherited their father's indifference to music, while his brother, Robert, though musically talented, was interested only in [[ragtime]].{{Sfn|Carpenter|1992|pp=6–7}} Edith gave the young Britten his first lessons in piano and notation. He made his first attempts at composition when he was five.{{Sfn|White|1954|p=2}} He started piano lessons when he was seven years old, and three years later began to play the [[viola]].{{Sfn|Carpenter|1992|pp=8, 13}} He was one of the last composers brought up on exclusively live music: his father refused to have a gramophone or, later, a radio in the house.<ref name=p7/>