Editing Errol Flynn (section)

==Early life==
[[File:Enid Lyons and Errol Flynn (cropped).jpg|right|thumb|upright|Flynn, alongside [[Enid Lyons]], as a page boy in a [[queen carnival]] at the age of nine]]
[[File:Errol Flynn at South West London College (1923).jpg|right|thumb|upright|Flynn at South West London College in 1923]]

Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn<ref name="mcnulty2004">{{Cite book|first=Thomas|last=McNulty|title=Errol Flynn: the life and career|year=2004|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-1750-6|page=5|chapter=One: from Tasmania to Hollywood 1909–1934|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SMb1DpW1_YgC&pg=PT17}}</ref> was born on 20 June 1909 at [[Queen Alexandra Hospital, Hobart|Queen Alexandra Hospital]] in [[Battery Point, Tasmania]]. His father, [[Theodore Thomson Flynn]], was a lecturer (1909) and later professor (1911) of marine biology and zoology at the [[University of Tasmania]] and [[Queen's University of Belfast]] where he served as the Chair of Zoology. His father was the first biology professor in [[Tasmania]]. His mother was born Lily Mary Young, but shortly after marrying Theodore at St John's Church of England, [[Birchgrove, New South Wales|Birchgrove]], [[Sydney]], on 23 January 1909,<ref>{{Cite Australian Dictionary of Biography |id2=flynn-errol-leslie-6364 |title=Errol Leslie Flynn (1909–1959) |first=William |last=Bryden |year=1981 |volume=8 ||access-date=7 June 2008}}</ref> she changed her first name to Marelle. Flynn had a younger sister, Nora Rosemary Flynn (1919-1981).<ref>Flynn always calls her Marelle in his autobiography.</ref> Flynn described his mother's family as "seafaring folk"<ref name="wicked33">Flynn, ''My Wicked, Wicked Ways'', p. 33.</ref> and this appears to be where his lifelong interest in boats and the sea originated. Both of his parents were Australian-born of Irish, English and Scottish descent. Despite Flynn's claims,<ref>Flynn, ''My Wicked, Wicked Ways'', p. 25.</ref> the evidence indicates that he was not descended from any of the [[Mutiny on the Bounty|''Bounty'' mutineers]].<ref name="whosyourgrandaddy">{{cite book|last=Fasano|first=Debra|url=http://www.whosyourgrandaddy.id.au|title=Young Blood – The Making of Errol Flynn|year=2009|publisher=Debra Fasano |isbn=978-0-9806703-0-1|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130524040258/http://whosyourgrandaddy.id.au/|archive-date=24 May 2013}}</ref>

Flynn received his early schooling in Hobart. Future World Correspondence Chess Champion [[Cecil Purdy]] was one of his classmates. He attended [[The Hutchins School]], [[Hobart College (Tasmania)|Hobart College]], [[The Friends School]] and Albuera Street Primary School and was expelled from each one. He made one of his first appearances as a performer in 1918, aged nine when he served as a [[Page (servant)|page boy]] to [[Enid Lyons]] in a [[queen carnival]]. In her memoirs, Lyons recalled Flynn as "a dashing figure—a handsome boy of nine with a fearless, somewhat haughty expression, already showing that sang-froid for which he was later to become famous throughout the civilised world". She further noted: "Unfortunately, Errol, at the age of nine, did not yet possess that magic for extracting money from the public which so distinguished his career as an actor. Our cause gained no apparent advantage from his presence in my entourage; we gained only third place in a field of seven."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.moadoph.gov.au/blog/oh-errol-what-does-errol-flynn-have-to-do-with-democracy/|title=Oh Errol!—what does Errol Flynn have to do with democracy?|publisher=Museum of Australian Democracy|date=20 June 2013|access-date=1 June 2018}}</ref>

From 1923 to 1925, Flynn attended the South West London College, a private boarding school in [[Barnes, London|Barnes]], London.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Bardrick, Ajax |year=2008 |title=Errol Flynn's Barnes Period |work=the-vu |url=https://the-vu.com/2008/10/15/errol-flynns-barnes-period/}}</ref>

In 1926, he returned to Australia to attend [[Sydney Church of England Grammar School]] (known as "Shore"),<ref>Moore, John Hammond: ''Young Errol Flynn before Hollywood'', 1975; {{ISBN|978-0-207-13158-5}}</ref> where he was the classmate of a future Australian prime minister, [[John Gorton]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Shaw|first=John|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/22/world/sir-john-gorton-90-australian-who-vetoed-himself-as-premier.html|title=Sir John Gorton, 90, Australian Who Vetoed Himself as Premier|work=The New York Times|date=22 May 2002|access-date=14 February 2010}}</ref> His formal education ended with his expulsion from Shore for theft,<ref name="jhmoore">Moore, John Hammond ''The Young Errol Flynn Before Hollywood'' (2nd Edition, 2011), Trafford Publishing<!-- ISBN needed --></ref> although he later claimed it was for a sexual encounter with the school's laundress.<ref name="Flynn, Errol 1959"/>

After being dismissed from a job as a junior clerk with a [[Sydney]] shipping company for pilfering petty cash, he went to [[Papua New Guinea]] at the age of eighteen, seeking his fortune in tobacco planting and gold mining in the [[Morobe Goldfield]].<ref name="PIM1947-11">{{cite web| work= XVIII(4) Pacific Islands Monthly |title= When Errol Flynn Was A NG Gold-Miner|date =18 November 1947|url= https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-316583400/view?partId=nla.obj-316607408#page/n67/mode/1up| access-date=30 September 2021}}</ref> He spent the next five years oscillating between living in [[New Guinea]] and Sydney.<ref name="jhmoore"/>

In January 1931, Flynn became engaged to Naomi Campbell-Dibbs, the youngest daughter of Robert and Emily Hamlyn (Brown) Campbell-Dibbs of [[Temora, New South Wales|Temora]] and [[Bowral]], [[New South Wales]]. They did not marry.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/16748356|title=Family Notices|newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]|issue=29,034|date=24 January 1931|page=12|via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>