Editing Jerome K. Jerome (section)

== Early life ==
Jerome was born at Belsize House, 1 Caldmore Road,<ref>=[https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/photos/item/IOE01/16182/10]</ref> in [[Caldmore]], [[Walsall]], England. He was the fourth child of Marguerite Jones and Jerome Clapp (who later renamed himself Jerome Clapp Jerome),<ref>Oulton, Carolyn (2012). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=K9Q9br1Yh4EC&pg=PA22 Below the Fairy City: A Life of Jerome K. Jerome]''. Victorian Secrets. p. 22. {{ISBN|1906469377}}.</ref> an ironmonger and [[lay preacher]] who dabbled in architecture.<ref name=shropstar>{{cite news|title=Great Lives: The writer who led the way in literary satire|work=Shropshire Star|date=31 January 2022|pages=20, 29}}Article on Jerome by Mark Andrews, part of series on Midlands worthies.</ref> He had two sisters, Paulina and Blandina, and one brother, Milton, who died at an early age. Jerome was registered as Jerome Clapp Jerome,<ref>Oulton, Carolyn (2012). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=K9Q9br1Yh4EC&pg=PA23 Below the Fairy City: A Life of Jerome K. Jerome]''. Victorian Secrets. p. 23. {{ISBN|1906469377}}.</ref> like his father's amended name, and the Klapka appears to be a later variation (after the exiled Hungarian general [[György Klapka]]). The family fell into poverty owing to bad investments in the local mining industry, and debt collectors visited often, an experience that Jerome described vividly in his autobiography ''My Life and Times'' (1926).<ref>{{cite book | title= My Life and Times | last= Jerome | first= Jerome | year= 1926 | publisher= Hodder & Stoughton}}</ref> At the age of two Jerome moved with his parents to [[Stourbridge]], Worcestershire, then later to east London.<ref name=shropstar />

The young Jerome attended [[St Marylebone Grammar School]]. He wished to go into politics or be a [[Intellectual#Man of Letters|Man of Letters]], but the death of his father when Jerome was 13 and of his mother when he was 15 forced him to quit his studies and find work to support himself. He was employed at the [[London and North Western Railway]], initially collecting coal that fell along the railway, and he remained there for four years.<ref name=shropstar />