Editing Leslie Howard (section)

==Early life==
[[File:LESLIE HOWARD 1893-1943 Actor and Film Director lived here.jpg|thumb|upright|[[English Heritage]] [[blue plaque]] at 45 Farquhar Road, Upper Norwood, London]]
Howard was born Leslie Howard Steiner to a [[British people|British]] mother, Lilian (''[[née]]'' Blumberg), and a [[History of the Jews in Hungary|Hungarian Jewish]] father, Ferdinand Steiner, in Forest Hill, London.<ref name="ODNB">{{Cite ODNB|id=34021|title=Howard, Leslie [real name Leslie Howard Steiner] (1893–1943)}}</ref> His younger brother was actor [[Arthur Howard]]. Lilian had been raised as a [[Christians|Christian]], but she was of partial Jewish ancestry—her paternal grandfather Ludwig Blumberg, a Jewish merchant who  had married into the English upper-middle classes.<ref>Eforgan 2010, pp. 1–10.</ref><ref name=elchieht>Nathan, John. [http://www.thejc.com/arts/book-reviews/42794/leslie-howard-the-lost-actor "Leslie Howard: The Lost Actor, The life and death of a non-spy."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201021130910/https://www.thejc.com/arts/book-reviews/42794/leslie-howard-the-lost-actor |date=21 October 2020 }} ''The Jewish Chronicle'', 20 December 2010. Retrieved: 20 December 2010.</ref><ref>[http://forward.com/the-assimilator/133218/quintessential-british-actors-jewishness-not-gone/ Quintessential British Actor's Jewishness Not 'Gone With the Wind'] Ivry, Benjamin. The Jewish Daily Forward. Forward.com. Published 17 November 2010. Accessed 28 December 2015.</ref>

He received his formal education at [[Alleyn's School]], London. Like many others around the time of the [[First World War]], the family anglicised its name, in this case to "Stainer", although Howard's name remained Steiner in official documents, such as his military records.

Howard was a 21-year-old bank clerk in [[Dulwich]] when the First World War began; in September 1914 he voluntarily enlisted (under the name Leslie Howard Steiner) as a Private with the [[British Army]]'s [[Inns of Court Regiment|Inns of Court Officer Training Corps]] in London.<ref>Leslie Howard Steiner's WW1 British Army service file, document order code WO 374/65089, [[The National Archives (United Kingdom)|The National Archives, London]], published at [https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/39887-leslie-howard-filmstar-of-the-30s-40s/ 'The Great War Forum.org' website, 4 November 2005.]</ref> In February 1915 he received a commission as a [[Subaltern (military)|subaltern]] with the 3/1st [[Northamptonshire Yeomanry]], with which he trained in England until 19 May 1916, when he resigned his commission and was medically discharged from the British Army with [[neurasthenia]].<ref>''[[The London Gazette]]'' (Supplement) dated 18 May 1916, [https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/29587/supplement/4961/data.pdf p. 4961]</ref><ref>Leslie Howard's World War I British Army service file, document order code WO 374/65089, The National Archives, London, published at [https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/39887-leslie-howard-filmstar-of-the-30s-40s/ 'The Great War Forum.org' website, 4 November 2005.]</ref>

In March 1920, Howard gave public notice in ''[[The London Gazette]]'' that he had [[Name change#United Kingdom|changed his surname]], and would thereafter be known by the name of Howard instead of Steiner.<ref>"Notice of Change of Name by Deed Poll" in ''The London Gazette'', Issue 31809 dated 5 March 1920, [https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/31809/page/2821/data.pdf p. 2821]</ref>