Editing Sibyl Hathaway (section)

==Early life==
Sibyl Mary Collings was born in [[Guernsey]] in a house that once belonged to [[John Allaire]], her [[privateer]]ing great-great-grandfather, whose business dealings brought the [[fief]] of [[Sark]] to his daughter, [[Marie Collings]].<ref name=odnb>{{cite ODNB |id=37519 |title=Hathaway [née Collings], Dame Sibyl Mary |last=Stoney |first=Barbara}}</ref> Her parents were [[William Frederick Collings]] and his [[Montreal]]-born wife Sophie (''née'' Moffatt). Collings was born two years after her notoriously [[Alcohol intoxication|intemperate]] father inherited the fief from his father, [[William Thomas Collings]]. She had one sibling, a sister named Doris.<ref name="Marr"/>

Collings, [[heir presumptive]] to Sark, was treated by her father as if she were a boy. She was lame due to [[unequal leg length]], but that did not prevent him from insisting on teaching her to shoot, sail, and climb cliffs.<ref name="Marr">{{cite book |last=Marr |first=James |author-link=James Marr (author) |title=Guernsey people |year=1984 |isbn=0850335299 |publisher=Phillimore |pages=65–67, 72}}</ref><ref name="Smithsonian"/> He never allowed his daughters to complain of pain or sadness, and his successor was later grateful for "being able to live a life free of the inconvenience of self-pity". As the future ruler of an island situated between France and the United Kingdom, she learned standard French and the local [[Sercquiais]] dialect of the [[Norman language]].<ref name="Smithsonian">{{cite magazine |url=http://footenotes.net/Pages/Sark.htm |title=How to Keep the 20th Century Mostly at Bay |date=May 1986 |magazine=Smithsonian}}</ref>