Editing Earle Page (section)

==Early life==
===Birth and family background===
Earle Christmas Grafton Page was born in [[Grafton, New South Wales]], on 8 August 1880. His first middle name, which he disliked, was given to him to carry on the surname of a childless relative, while his second middle name was in honour of his birthplace. Page was the fifth of eleven children born to Charles Page and Mary Johanna Haddon (Annie) Cox.<ref name=before>[http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/page/before-office.aspx#section1 Australia's PMs > Earle Page > Before office] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100718002920/http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/page/before-office.aspx#section1 |date=18 July 2010 }}, National Archives of Australia. Retrieved 29 January 2017.</ref> His older brother [[Rodger Page|Rodger]] was chaplain to the royal family of [[Tonga]] and his younger brother [[Harold Page|Harold]] was the deputy administrator of the [[Territory of New Guinea]] and a Japanese prisoner of war. Page's parents had both lived in Grafton since they were children. His mother was born in [[Tasmania]] to an English father and a Scottish mother. His father, born in London, was a successful businessman and a member of the [[Clarence Valley Council|Grafton City Council]], serving a single term as mayor in 1908. The family business was a hardware manufacturing firm, which had its origins in a [[Coachbuilder|coachbuilding]] firm established in 1858 by Page's maternal grandfather, Edwin Cox.<ref name=book>{{cite book|first=Frank|last=Moorhouse|author-link=Frank Moorhouse|title=Earle Page|publisher=Black Inc.|year=2001|page=19|isbn=1863952748}}</ref> His other grandfather, James Page, arrived in Grafton in 1855, serving as the town's first schoolmaster and first [[town clerk]].<ref>Moorhouse (2001), p. 17.</ref>

===Education===
Page began his schooling at Grafton Public School, where he excelled academically. His family could not afford to send him to boarding school, as a result of financial difficulties caused by the [[Australian banking crisis of 1893|banking crisis of 1893]]. Page consequently had to rely on scholarships to advance his education.<ref>Moorhouse (2001), p. 26.</ref> He won a bursary to attend [[Sydney Boys High School]] in 1895, where he passed the university entrance exams, and the following year – aged 15 – began studying a [[liberal arts]] course at the [[University of Sydney]]. He was equal top in mathematics in his first year, and was also awarded the lucrative Struth Exhibition for "general proficiency in the arts", which allowed him to switch to medicine and covered his first four years of medical school.<ref>Moorhouse (2001), p. 29.</ref> His role model was [[Grafton Elliot Smith|Grafton Smith]], who had followed a similar path from Grafton Public School to university.<ref>Moorhouse (2001), p. 28.</ref> At [[Sydney Medical School]], Page's lecturers included [[William Aitcheson Haswell|William Haswell]] (biology), [[James Peter Hill|James Hill]] (biology), [[Charles James Martin (physiologist)|Charles Martin]] (physiology), [[Thomas Peter Anderson Stuart|Anderson Stuart]] (physiology), and [[James Thomas Wilson|James Wilson]] (anatomy).<ref>Moorhouse (2001), pp. 35–36.</ref> He graduated at the top of his class in 1901, with the degrees of [[Bachelor of Medicine]] (M.B.) and [[Master of Surgery]] (Ch.M.).<ref>Moorhouse (2001), p. 40.</ref>