Editing Michael Ventris (section)

==Early life and education==
Ventris was born into a traditional army family. His grandfather, [[Francis Ventris]], was a major-general and [[Commander British Forces in Hong Kong|Commander of British Forces in China]]. His father, Edward Francis Vereker Ventris, was a lieutenant-colonel in the Indian Army,<ref>Great Britons: Twentieth-century lives, Harold Oxbury, 1985</ref> who retired early due to ill health. Edward Ventris married Anna Dorothea (Dora) Janasz, who was from a wealthy Jewish and Polish paternal background. Michael Ventris was their only child.

The family moved to Switzerland for eight years, seeking a healthy environment for Colonel Ventris. Young Michael started school in [[Gstaad]], where classes were taught in French and German. He soon mastered the Swiss German dialect.<ref name=chad2>{{harvnb|Chadwick|1990|p=2}}.</ref> A few weeks in Sweden after the Second World War enabled him to become competent in Swedish. His mother often spoke Polish and he was fluent in it by the age of eight.
[[File:Stowe School - geograph.org.uk - 582994.jpg|thumb|left|Stowe School in August 2005]]
In 1931, the Ventris family returned home. From 1931 to 1935 Ventris was sent to Bickley Hall School in Bromley, Kent. His parents divorced in 1935. At this time, he secured a scholarship to [[Stowe School]]. At Stowe he learned some [[Latin]] and [[Ancient Greek|Greek]].<ref name=chad2/> He did not do outstanding work there – by then he was spending most of his spare time learning as much as he could about Linear B, some of his study time being spent under the covers at night with a torch. 

When he was not boarding at school, Ventris lived with his mother, before 1935 in coastal hotels, and then in the avant garde [[Berthold Lubetkin]]'s [[Highpoint I|Highpoint]] modernist apartments in [[Highgate]], north [[County of London|London]]. His mother's acquaintances, who frequented the house, included many sculptors, painters, and writers of the day. The flat was furnished with the works of [[Marcel Breuer]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Desk by Marcel Breuer |url=https://www.artfund.org/supporting-museums/art-weve-helped-buy/artwork/8587/desk |access-date=2022-09-24 |website=Art Fund |language=en}}</ref> The money for her artistic [[patronage]] came from Polish estates.