Editing Hugh Lofting (section)

==Personal life==
Lofting was born on 14 January 1886 in [[Maidenhead]], Berkshire, to Elizabeth Agnes (Gannon) and John Brien Lofting,<ref name=familysearch/> and was of English and Irish ancestry.<ref>[https://lofting.thefreelibrary.com/ "Hugh Lofting (1886–1947)"]. The Free Library by Farlex (thefreelibrary.com). Confirmed 9 January 2023.</ref> His eldest brother, [[Hilary Lofting]], later became a novelist in Australia, having emigrated there in 1915.

Lofting was educated at [[Mount St Mary's College]] in [[Spinkhill]], Derbyshire. From 1905 to 1906 he studied [[civil engineering]] at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] in Cambridge, Massachusetts.<ref name="MIT bulletin">{{Cite journal |journal=Bulletin of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology |title=Register of Students |date=December 1905 |volume=41 |issue=1 |page=386 |url=https://dome.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.3/82746/AC0598_001906.pdf?sequence=1 |access-date=25 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906183437/http://dome.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.3/82746/AC0598_001906.pdf?sequence=1 |archive-date=6 September 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=150 Years in the Stacks – Year 60 – 1920: The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting |publisher=[[Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries]] |url=https://libraries.mit.edu/150books/2011/03/07/1920/ |access-date=25 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151129034021/http://libraries.mit.edu/150books/2011/03/07/1920/ |archive-date=29 November 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Lofting travelled widely as a civil engineer before enlisting in the [[Irish Guards]] regiment of the [[British Army]] in the First World War. Not wishing to write to his children about the brutal war, he wrote imaginative letters that later became the foundations for his ''[[Doctor Dolittle]]'' novels for children. Seriously wounded in the war, he emigrated with his family to [[Killingworth, Connecticut|Killingworth]], Connecticut, in 1919.<ref>Cindi Pietrzyk, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=b_h0XsFAQmAC&pg=PA157 Connecticut Off the Beaten Path]'', p. 157. Globe Pequot, 2013.</ref> He was married three times and had three children, one of whom, his son Christopher,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Obituary of Christopher Clement Lofting |url=https://gannonfuneralhome.com/tribute/details/1332/Christopher-Lofting/obituary.html |publisher=The Gannon Funeral Home |access-date=2022-09-12 |language=en-US}}</ref> became the executor of his [[literary estate]].

Lofting died on 26 September 1947 at his home in [[Topanga, California]]<ref>"". ''Topanga Journal''. 3 October 1947. "Requiem mass was recited Tuesday morning ...".<br>{{Cite web |title=Hugh Lofting Noted Topanga Writer, Passes |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/legacy/607669294/?terms=hugh%20lofting%20topanga&match=1 |work=[[Topanga Journal]] |location=Topanga, California |date=October 3, 1947 |page=1 |access-date=2022-09-15 |via=Newspapers.com |language=en}}</ref> from [[Cirrhosis|cirrhosis of the liver]].<ref name=familysearch>[https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9SJ-TTLM?i=1550&cc=2001287&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AQP3W-J1G8 Death certificate for Hugh John Lofting] {{subscription}}. Family Search (familysearch.org)</ref> He is buried at Evergreen Cemetery in [[Killingworth, Connecticut|Killingworth]], Middlesex County, Connecticut.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cemeteries |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/177118250/ |work=[[Hartford Courant]] |date=16 July 1999 |page=41 |access-date=2022-09-15 |via=Newspapers.com |language=en}}</ref>