Editing Robert Graves (section)

==Early life==
Graves was born into a middle-class family in [[Municipal Borough of Wimbledon|Wimbledon]], then part of [[Surrey]], now part of south London. He was the eighth of ten children born to [[Alfred Perceval Graves]] (1846–1931), who was the sixth child and second son of [[Charles Graves (bishop)|Charles Graves]], [[Bishop of Limerick, Ardfert and Aghadoe]].<ref name=boy2>{{cite book|last=Boylan|first= Henry |year=1998|title=A Dictionary of Irish Biography, 3rd Edition|page= 152|location=Dublin|publisher= Gill and MacMillan|isbn = 0-7171-2945-4}}</ref> His father was an Irish school inspector, [[Gaels|Gaelic]] scholar and the author of the popular song "Father O'Flynn", and his mother was his father's second wife, Amalie Elisabeth Sophie von Ranke (1857–1951), grandniece of the historian [[Leopold von Ranke]]. His uncle was the admiral commanding the [[Nore]] during [[World War I]], [[Sir Richard Poore, 4th Baronet]].

At the age of seven, [[classification of pneumonia|double pneumonia]] following [[measles]] almost took Graves's life, the first of three occasions when he was despaired of by his doctors as a result of afflictions of the lungs, the second being the result of a war wound and the third when he contracted [[1918 flu pandemic|Spanish influenza]] in late 1918, immediately before [[Demobilization|demobilisation]].<ref>Graves (1960) p. 234.</ref>

At school, Graves was enrolled as Robert von Ranke Graves, and in Germany, his books are published under that name, but before and during the First World War the name caused him difficulties.

===Education===
Graves received his early education at a series of six [[preparatory school (United Kingdom)|preparatory schools]], including [[King's College School]] in [[Wimbledon, London|Wimbledon]], Penrallt in Wales, [[Hillbrow School]] in [[Rugby, Warwickshire|Rugby]], [[Rokeby Preparatory School|Rokeby School]] in [[Wimbledon, London|Wimbledon]] and [[Copthorne Prep School|Copthorne]] in Sussex, from which last in 1909 he won a scholarship to [[Charterhouse School|Charterhouse]].<ref>Graves (1960) pp. 21–25.</ref> There he began to write poetry and took up boxing, in due course becoming school champion at both [[Welterweight|welter-]] and [[middleweight]]. He claimed that this was in response to persecution because of the German element in his name, his outspokenness, his scholarly and moral seriousness, and his poverty relative to the other boys.<ref>Graves (1960) pp. 38–48.</ref>

He also sang in the choir, meeting there an aristocratic boy three years younger, [[George Harcourt Vanden-Bampde-Johnstone, 3rd Baron Derwent|G. H. "Peter" Johnstone]], with whom he began an intense romantic friendship, the scandal of which led ultimately to an interview with the headmaster.<ref>Graves (1960) pp. 45–52.</ref> However, Graves himself called it "chaste and sentimental" and "proto-homosexual," and though he was clearly in love with Peter (disguised by the name "Dick" in ''[[Good-Bye to All That]]''), he denied that their relationship was ever sexual.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bremer |first1=John |title=C.S. Lewis, poetry, and the Great War: 1914–1918 |date=2012 |publisher=Lexington Books |isbn=978-0-7391-7152-3 |page=153}}</ref> He was warned about Peter's proclivities by other contemporaries.<ref>{{cite book|author=Jean Moorcroft Wilson|title=Robert Graves: From Great War Poet to Good-bye to All That (1895–1929)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C7NTDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT108|date=9 August 2018|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-4729-2915-0|page=108}}</ref>

Among the masters, his chief influence was [[George Mallory]], who later died trying to scale [[Mount Everest]], and who introduced him to contemporary literature and took him mountaineering in the holidays.<ref>Graves (1960) p. 48.</ref><ref>Graves (1960) pp. 55–60.</ref> In his final year at Charterhouse, he won a [[Classics|classical]] [[Exhibition (scholarship)|exhibition]] to [[St John's College, Oxford]], but did not take his place there until after the war.<ref>Graves (1960) pp. 36–37.</ref>