Editing David Irving (section)

==Early life==
David John Cawdell Irving and his twin brother, Nicholas,<ref name="Guttenplan 41">{{Harvnb|Guttenplan|2001|p=41}}.</ref> were born six months before the start of the [[Sudetendeutsches Freikorps#Undeclared German–Czechoslovak War|undeclared German–Czechoslovak War]], as [[Nazi Germany]] moved towards initiating [[World War II]]. The family lived in [[Hutton, Essex|Hutton]], near [[Brentwood, Essex|Brentwood]], [[Essex]], England. Irving had another brother, John,<ref>"Irving, John N B (mother Newington)" in Register of Births for Hampstead Registration District, vol. 1a (1930), p. 803</ref> and a sister, Jennifer.<ref>"Irving, Jennifer C (mother Newington)" in Register of Births for Billericay Registration District, vol. 4a (1935), p. 878</ref> His father, John James Cawdell Irving (1898–1967), was a career naval officer and a commander in the [[Royal Navy]]. His mother, Beryl Irving (''née'' Newington), was an illustrator and a writer of children's books.<ref name="Craig">{{cite news |last=Craig |first=Olga |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1511495/David-what-on-earth-would-Mother-think.html |title=David, what on earth would Mother think? |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=26 February 2006|access-date=2 September 2011|url-access=registration |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110805023947/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1511495/David-what-on-earth-would-Mother-think.html |archive-date=5 August 2011}}</ref>

During World War II, Irving's father was an officer aboard the light cruiser [[HMS Edinburgh (C16)|HMS ''Edinburgh'']]. On 30 April 1942, while escorting [[Convoy QP 11]] in the [[Barents Sea]], the ship was badly damaged by the [[German submarine U-456]]. Two days later, the ship was attacked by the German destroyers {{ship|German destroyer Z7|Hermann Schoemann||2}}, {{ship|German destroyer|Z24||2}} and {{ship|German destroyer|Z25||2}}, and now beyond recovery, was abandoned then scuttled by a torpedo from [[HMS Foresight (H68)|HMS ''Foresight'']]. Irving's father survived but severed all links with his wife and children after the incident.<ref>{{Harvnb|Guttenplan|2001|p=40}}.</ref>

Irving described his childhood in an interview with the American writer [[Ron Rosenbaum]]: "Unlike the Americans, we English suffered great deprivations ... we went through childhood with no toys. We had no kind of childhood at all. We were living on an island that was crowded with other people's armies".<ref name="Rosenbaum 227">{{Harvnb|Rosenbaum|1999|p=227}}.</ref> According to his twin brother, Nicholas, David was a provocateur and prankster since his youth. He said that "David used to run toward bombed out houses shouting 'Heil Hitler!{{'"}}, a statement which Irving denied.<ref name="Craig"/> Irving also told Rosenbaum that he had held [[Holocaust denial|Holocaust-denial]]ist views since childhood because of his objections to cartoon caricatures of [[Adolf Hitler]] and other Nazi leaders published in the British wartime press.<ref name="Rosenbaum 227" />