Editing Lindsay Anderson (section)

== Early life ==
Lindsay Gordon Anderson was born in [[Bangalore]], [[South India]], where his father was stationed with the [[Royal Engineers]], on 17 April 1923.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lindsay-Anderson|title=Lindsay Anderson {{!}} Biography & Film Career|work=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=2018-06-05|language=en|archive-date=22 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201022064915/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lindsay-Anderson|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Lindsay Anderson|last=Graham|first=Allison|publisher=Twayne Publishers|year=1981|location=University of Stirling Archives}}</ref> His father Captain (later Major General) [[Alexander Vass Anderson]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp75191/alexander-vass-anderson|title=Alexander Vass Anderson – National Portrait Gallery|website=www.npg.org.uk|access-date=30 January 2019|archive-date=29 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210629193014/https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp75191/alexander-vass-anderson|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unithistories.com/officers/Army_officers_A06.html|title=Officers of the British Army 1939–1945 -- A|website=www.unithistories.com|access-date=30 January 2019|archive-date=4 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170304114045/http://www.unithistories.com/officers/Army_officers_A06.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>''Lindsay Anderson Diaries, Lindsay Anderson,'' ed. Paul Sutton, Bloomsbury, 2004, Introduction, p.13</ref> was a British Army officer who had come from Scotland. His mother Estelle Bell Gasson was born in [[Queenstown, Eastern Cape|Queenstown, South Africa]], the daughter of a wool merchant.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Mainly about Lindsay Anderson : a memoir|last=Gavin.|first=Lambert|date=2000|publisher=Faber|isbn=0-571-17775-1|location=London|oclc=44015535}}</ref><ref>''British Society Since 1945: The Penguin Social History of Britain,'' Arthur Marwick, Penguin Books, 1996, p. 127</ref> Lindsay was the second son. His parents separated in 1926, and Estelle returned to England with the two boys. In 1932 the couple tried to reconcile in Bangalore, and when Estelle returned to England she was pregnant with their third son, who was named Alexander Vass Anderson after his father.<ref name=":2" /> The Andersons divorced. Estelle married again in 1936, to Major Cuthbert Sleigh.<ref name=":2" /> Lindsay's father remarried while in India. Gavin Lambert writes, in ''Mainly About Lindsay Anderson: A Memoir'' (Faber and Faber, 2000, p.&nbsp;18), that the father Alexander Vass Anderson 'cut (his first family) out of his life', making no reference to them in his ''[[Who's Who]]'' entry. But Lindsay often saw his father and looked after his house and dogs <!-- Where were each living then? -->when he was away.<ref>''Lindsay Anderson Revisited: Unknown Aspects of a Film Director,'' ed. Erik Hedling, Christophe Dupin, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, p. 120</ref>

Both Lindsay and his older brother Murray Anderson (1919–2016) were educated at [[St. Ronan's School|Saint Ronan's School]] in [[Worthing]], [[West Sussex]], and at [[Cheltenham College]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/murray-anderson-vj26whxtj|title=Murray Anderson|date=27 May 2016|via=www.thetimes.co.uk|access-date=30 January 2019|archive-date=23 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123203415/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/murray-anderson-vj26whxtj|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2016/04/28/murray-anderson-pilot--obituary/|title=Murray Anderson, pilot – obituary|date=2016-04-28|work=The Telegraph|access-date=2018-06-05|language=en-GB|issn=0307-1235|archive-date=6 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806200833/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2016/04/28/murray-anderson-pilot--obituary/|url-status=live}}</ref> It was at Cheltenham that Lindsay met his lifelong friend [[Gavin Lambert]], who became a screenwriter and novelist, and later the director's biographer.<ref name=":2" /> 

The UK had been at war for years when Anderson won a scholarship in 1942 for classical studies at [[Wadham College, Oxford|Wadham College]] at the [[University of Oxford]].<ref name=":2" /> The next year he entered [[World War II]], serving in the Army from 1943 until 1946, first with the [[King's Royal Rifle Corps|60th King's Royal Rifle Corps]]. In the final year of the war, he was a [[cryptography|cryptographer]] for the [[Intelligence Corps (United Kingdom)|Intelligence Corps]], based at the [[Wireless Experimental Centre]] in [[Delhi]].<ref name=":1" /> 

In August 1945, Anderson assisted in nailing the [[Red flag (politics)|Red flag]] to the roof of the Junior Officers' mess in Annan Parbat, after the victory of the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] in the [[1945 United Kingdom general election|general election]] was confirmed.<ref name="StandUp">''Sight and Sound'', Autumn 1956, reprinted in Paul Ryan (ed) ''Never Apologise: The Collected Writings'', 2004, London: Plexus, p218-32, 228, 226. This article was reprinted in a shortened form in ''Universities and Left Review'' 1:1, Spring 1957, p44-48, 46, 46, and is online [http://www.amielandmelburn.org.uk/collections/ulr/1_cinema.pdf here] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120216211049/http://www.amielandmelburn.org.uk/collections/ulr/1_cinema.pdf |date=16 February 2012 }}, though only part of the second reference is reproduced.</ref> Their colonel did not approve, he recalled a decade later, but took no disciplinary action against the junior officers.

Lindsay returned to Oxford in 1946 but changed from classical studies to English;<ref name=":2" /> he graduated in 1948.<ref name=":1" />