Editing Clement Attlee (section)

==Early life==
Attlee was born on 3 January 1883 in [[Putney]], Surrey (now part of London), into an [[upper middle class]] family, the seventh of eight children. His father was Henry Attlee, a solicitor, and his mother was Ellen Bravery Watson, daughter of Thomas Simons Watson, secretary for the [[Art Union of London]].<ref>Davies, Edward J. "The Ancestry of Clement Attlee", ''Genealogists' Magazine'', 31(2013–15): 380–87.</ref> His parents were "committed Anglicans" who read prayers and psalms each morning at breakfast.<ref name=spartacus>{{cite news|url=https://spartacus-educational.com/TUattlee.htm|title=Clement Attlee|publisher=Spartacus Education|access-date=2 August 2017|archive-date=25 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230725070820/https://spartacus-educational.com/TUattlee.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

Attlee grew up in a two-storey villa with a large garden and tennis court, staffed by three servants and a gardener. His father, a political [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]], had inherited family interests in milling and brewing, and became a senior partner in the law firm of Druces, also serving a term as president of the [[Law Society of England and Wales]]. In 1898 he purchased a {{convert|200|acre|ha|adj=on}} estate, [[Comarques, Thorpe-le-Soken|Comarques]] in [[Thorpe-le-Soken]], Essex. At the age of nine, Attlee was sent to board at [[Northaw Place]], a boys' preparatory school in [[Hertfordshire]]. In 1896 he followed his brothers to [[Haileybury College]], where he was a middling student. He was influenced by the [[Darwinist]] views of his housemaster [[Frederick Webb Headley]], and in 1899 he published an attack on striking London cab-drivers in the school magazine, predicting they would soon have to "beg for their fares".<ref name=spartacus/>

In 1901, Attlee went up to [[University College, Oxford]], reading [[modern history]]. He and his brother Tom "were given a generous stipend by their father and embraced the university lifestyle—rowing, reading and socializing". He was later described by a tutor as "level-headed, industrious, dependable man with no brilliance of style&nbsp;... but with excellent sound judgement". At university he had little interest in politics or economics, later describing his views at this time as "good old fashioned imperialist conservative". He graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1904 with [[British undergraduate degree classification|second-class honours]].<ref name=spartacus/>

Attlee then trained as a [[barrister]] at the [[Inner Temple]] and was [[called to the bar]] in March 1906. He worked for a time at his father's law firm Druces and Attlee but did not enjoy the work, and had no particular ambition to succeed in the legal profession.{{sfn|Beckett|1998|p=17}} He also played football for [[non-League]] club [[Fleet Town F.C.|Fleet]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Borrows |first=Bill |title=Why football can be a dangerous game for politicians |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/11566133/Why-football-can-be-a-dangerous-game-for-politicians.html |url-status=live |url-access=subscription |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |date=27 April 2015 |access-date=2 September 2022 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/11566133/Why-football-can-be-a-dangerous-game-for-politicians.html |archive-date=11 January 2022}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Attlee's father died in 1908, leaving an estate valued for probate at £75,394 (equivalent to £{{formatnum:{{Inflation|UK|75394|1908|r=0}}}} in {{Inflation-year|UK}}{{Inflation-fn|UK|df=y}}).<ref name="probate" />

=== Early career ===
In 1906, Attlee became a volunteer at Haileybury House, a charitable club for working-class boys in [[Stepney]] in the [[East End of London]] run by his old school, and from 1907 to 1909 he served as the club's manager. Until then, his political views had been more conservative. However, after his shock at the poverty and deprivation he saw while working with the [[slum]] children, he came to the view that private charity would never be sufficient to alleviate poverty and that only direct action and [[income redistribution]] by the state would have any serious effect. This sparked a process that caused him to convert to [[socialism]]. He joined the [[Independent Labour Party]] (ILP) in 1908 and became active in local politics. In 1909, he stood unsuccessfully at his first election, as an ILP candidate for Stepney Borough Council.{{sfn|Beckett|1998|pp=18–35}}

He also worked briefly as a secretary for [[Beatrice Webb]] in 1909, before becoming a secretary for [[Toynbee Hall]]. He worked for Webb's campaign of popularisation of the [[Minority report (Poor Law)|Minority Report]] as he was very active in [[Fabian Society]] circles, in which he would go round visiting many political societies—Liberal, Conservative and socialist—to explain and popularise the ideas, as well as recruiting lecturers deemed suitable to work on the campaign. In 1911, he was employed by the [[Government of the United Kingdom|Government]] as an "official explainer"—touring the country to explain [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]] [[David Lloyd George]]'s [[National Insurance Act]]. He spent the summer of that year touring [[Essex]] and [[Somerset]] on a bicycle, explaining the Act at public meetings. A year later, he became a lecturer at the [[London School of Economics]], teaching [[social science]] and [[public administration]].{{Sfn|Beckett|1998|pp=34–43}}

=== Military service ===
Following the outbreak of the [[First World War]] in August 1914, Attlee applied to join the [[British Army]]. Initially his application was turned down, as his age of 31 was seen as being too old; however, he was eventually commissioned as a temporary lieutenant in the 6th (Service) Battalion, [[South Lancashire Regiment]], on 30 September 1914.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28985|supp=y|page=9961|date=25 November 1914}}</ref> On 9 February 1915 he was promoted to [[Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)|captain]],<ref>{{London Gazette|nolink=y|issue=29098|page=2504|date=12 March 1915}}</ref> and on 14 March was appointed battalion [[adjutant]].<ref>{{London Gazette|nolink=y|issue=29124|supp=2|page=3556|date=10 April 1915}}</ref> The 6th South Lancashires were part of the [[38th Brigade (United Kingdom)|38th Brigade]] of the [[13th (Western) Division]], which served in the [[Gallipoli campaign]] in [[Ottoman Empire|Turkey]]. Attlee's decision to fight caused a rift between him and his older brother Tom, who, as a [[conscientious objector]], spent much of the war in prison.{{sfn|Beckett|1998|pp=43–45, 52}}

After a period spent fighting in Gallipoli, Attlee collapsed after falling ill with [[dysentery]] and was put on a ship bound for England to recover. When he woke up he wanted to get back to action as soon as possible, and asked to be let off the ship in Malta, where he stayed in hospital in order to recover. His hospitalisation coincided with the [[Battle of Sari Bair]], which saw a large number of his comrades killed. Upon returning to action, he was informed that his company had been chosen to hold the final lines during the [[Gallipoli Campaign#Evacuation|evacuation of Suvla]]. As such, he was the penultimate man to be evacuated from [[Landing at Suvla Bay|Suvla Bay]], the last being General [[Stanley Maude]].{{sfn|Beckett|1998|pp=47–50}}
[[File:Attlee, 1916 IWM (crop).png|thumb|left|Attlee (seen in the centre) in 1916, aged 33, whilst serving in Mesopotamia.]]
The Gallipoli Campaign had been engineered by the [[First Lord of the Admiralty]], [[Winston Churchill]]. Although it was unsuccessful, Attlee believed that it was a bold strategy which could have been successful if it had been better implemented on the ground. This led to an admiration for Churchill as a military strategist, something which would make their working relationship in later years productive.{{sfn|Beckett|1998|p=46}}

He later served in the [[Mesopotamian campaign]] in what is now [[Iraq]], where in April 1916 he was badly wounded, being hit in the leg by [[Shrapnel shell|shrapnel]] from friendly fire while storming an enemy trench during the [[Battle of Hanna]]. The battle was an unsuccessful attempt to relieve the [[Siege of Kut]], and many of Attlee's fellow soldiers were also wounded or killed. He was sent firstly to [[Presidencies and provinces of British India|India]], and then back to the UK to recover. On 18 December 1916 he was transferred to the [[Royal Tank Regiment#History|Heavy Section]] of the [[Machine Gun Corps]],<ref>{{London Gazette|nolink=y|issue=29894|supp=2|page=358|date=6 January 1917}}</ref> and 1 March 1917 he was promoted to the temporary rank of [[Major (United Kingdom)|major]],<ref>{{London Gazette|nolink=y|issue=30038|supp=y|page=4050|date=27 April 1917}}</ref> leading him to be known as "Major Attlee" for much of the [[inter-war period]]. He would spend most of 1917 training soldiers at various locations in England.{{sfn|Beckett|1998|pp=50–51}} From 2 to 9 July 1917, he was the temporary commanding officer (CO) of the newly formed L (later 10th) Battalion, the [[Royal Tank Regiment|Tank Corps]] at Bovington Camp, [[Dorset]]. From 9 July, he assumed command of the 30th Company of the same battalion; however, he did not deploy to France with it in December 1917,<ref>''The National Archive WO 95/101 War History of 10th Battalion, Tank Corps'', pp. 1–2.<!--publisher, year, ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref> as he was transferred back to the South Lancashire Regiment on 28 November.<ref>{{London Gazette|nolink=y|issue=30425|supp=3|page=13038|date=13 December 1917}}</ref>

After fully recovering from his injuries, he was sent to France in June 1918 to serve on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]] for the final months of the war. After being discharged from the Army in January 1919, he returned to [[Stepney]], and returned to his old job lecturing part-time at the [[London School of Economics]].{{sfn|Beckett|1998|pp=55–58}}