Editing Harold Shipman (section)

==Early life and education==
Harold Frederick Shipman was born on 14 January 1946 on the [[Bestwood Estate]], a council estate in [[Nottingham]], the second of three children.<ref>{{cite news| last= Oliver| first=Mark |title=Portrait of a necrophiliac| url= https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/jan/13/shipman.health |newspaper=The Guardian |date=13 January 2004}}</ref> His father, also Harold Frederick Shipman (1914–1985), was a lorry driver; his mother was Vera ({{nee|Brittan}}; 1919–1963).<ref name="abc RN">{{cite episode| last=Swan |first=Norman |title=Why Some Doctors Kill |series=The Health Report |date=29 July 2002 |others=Brigitte Seega (producer); Robert Kaplan (guest) |url= https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/healthreport/why-some-doctors-kill/3517994 |access-date=1 April 2010 |network=ABC Australia |station=Radio National}} [Programme transcript]</ref><ref name= "bookref1">{{cite book| last= Kaplan| first=Robert M.|title =Medical Murder: Disturbing Cases of Doctors Who Kill|publisher=Allen & Unwin| year= 2009| page= 80|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=-4DYxI65nAUC |isbn=978-1-74175-610-4}}</ref> His working-class parents were devout [[Methodists]].<ref name="abc RN"/><ref name="bookref1"/>

Shipman was particularly close to his mother, who died of [[lung cancer]] when he was aged 17.<ref name="bookref1"/><ref>''[[Born to Kill?]]'', [[Channel 5 (UK)|Channel 5]], 2 August 2012.</ref><ref name="independent1">{{cite news|last=Herbert|first=Ian|title=How a humble GP perverted his medical skill to become Britain's most prolific mass killer|date=14 January 2004|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/how-a-humble-gp-perverted-his-medical-skill-to-become-britain-s-most-prolific-mass-killer-73537.html |access-date=2 September 2009|work=The Independent|location=London}}</ref> Her death came in a manner similar to what later became Shipman's own ''[[modus operandi]]'': in the later stages of her disease, she had [[morphine]] administered at home by a doctor. Shipman witnessed his mother's pain subside, despite her terminal condition, until her death on 21 June 1963.<ref>[http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/shipman/die_3.html ''The Early Life of Harold Shipman''].</ref>

On 5 November 1966, he married Primrose May Oxtoby; the couple had four children. Shipman studied medicine at [[Leeds School of Medicine]], [[University of Leeds]], graduating in 1970.<ref name="bbc2002"/>