Editing Stanley Baldwin (section)

==Early life: family, education and marriage==
Baldwin was born at Lower Park House (Lower Park, [[Bewdley]]) in [[Worcestershire]], England, to [[Alfred Baldwin (politician)|Alfred]] and [[MacDonald sisters|Louisa (MacDonald) Baldwin]], and through his mother was a first cousin of, and had a lifelong friendship with, the writer and poet [[Rudyard Kipling]]. A summer spent with Kipling and his sister with the freedom of farm and forest at [[Loughton]], Essex, in 1877 was seminal to the development of both boys.<ref name="Lingley">{{cite book |last=Lingley |first=Janice |title=The Loughton Idyll |publisher=Alderton Press |date=2020 |isbn=978-1-9052-6934-1}}</ref>

The family was prosperous, and owned the eponymous iron- and steel-making business that in later years became part of [[Richard Thomas and Baldwins]].{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

Baldwin's schools were [[Hawtreys|St Michael's School]], at the time located in [[Slough]], [[Buckinghamshire]] (now [[Berkshire]]), followed by [[Harrow School]].<ref>{{acad|id=BLDN885S|name=Baldwin, Stanley}}</ref> He later wrote that "[[Humpty Dumpty|all the king's horses and all the king's men]] would have failed to have drawn me into the company of school masters, and in relation to them I once had every qualification as a passive resister."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Baldwin |first=Stanley |title=On England |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |date=1926 |page=162}}</ref> Baldwin then went on to the [[University of Cambridge]], where he studied history at [[Trinity College, Cambridge|Trinity College]]. His time at university was blighted by the presence, as [[Trinity College, Cambridge#Masters|Master of Trinity]], of [[Henry Montagu Butler]], his former headmaster who had punished him at Harrow for writing a piece of schoolboy smut. He was asked to resign from the Magpie & Stump (the Trinity College debating society) for never speaking, and, after receiving a [[third-class degree]] in history, he went into the family business of iron manufacturing. His father sent him to [[Mason College]] for one session of technical training in [[metallurgy]] as preparation.<ref>K. Feiling, ''The Life of Neville Chamberlain'' (London, 1970), pg. 11</ref> As a young man he served briefly as a [[second lieutenant]] in the Artillery Volunteers at [[Malvern, Worcestershire|Malvern]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Middlemas and Barnes |title=Baldwin: a biography |publisher=[[Weidenfeld and Nicolson]] |date=1969 |page=21}}</ref> and in 1897 became a [[justice of the peace|JP]] for the county of [[Worcestershire]].<ref name="WWW">{{Cite book |title=Who Was Who, 1941–1950 |publisher=A and C Black |date=1952 |page=52}}</ref>

Baldwin married [[Lucy Ridsdale]] on 12 September 1892. Following the birth of a [[Stillbirth|still-born]] son in January 1894, the couple had six surviving children:<ref name="Stuart_Ball"/>
* Lady Diana Lucy Baldwin (8 April 1895 – 21 May 1982)
* Lady Leonora Stanley Baldwin (10 July 1896 – 23 June 1989)
* Lady Pamela Margaret Baldwin (16 September 1897 – 14 August 1976)
* [[Major (rank)|Major]] [[Oliver Ridsdale Baldwin, 2nd Earl Baldwin of Bewdley]] (1 March 1899 – 10 August 1958)
* Lady Esther Louisa (Betty) Baldwin (16 March 1902 – 22 June 1981)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mosley |first=Charles |title=Burke's Peerage and Baronetage |date=1999 |publisher=Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd |edition=106th |location=Crans, Switzerland |page=171}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Mosley |first=Charles |title=Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage |date=2003 |publisher=Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd |edition=107th |page=231}}</ref>
* [[Arthur Baldwin, 3rd Earl Baldwin of Bewdley|Arthur Windham Baldwin, 3rd Earl Baldwin of Bewdley]] (22 March 1904 – 5 July 1976)

Baldwin's youngest daughter, Lady Betty, was severely injured by shrapnel in March 1941 as a result of a [[The Blitz|bombing raid]] which destroyed the [[Café de Paris (London)|Café de Paris]] nightclub she was attending.<ref name="Belton, Neil 1998, p.52">Belton, Neil. ''The Good Listener: Helen Bamber, a Life against Cruelty''. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998, p.52</ref> She required facial reconstruction surgery from the pioneering surgeon [[Archibald MacIndoe]].<ref name="Belton, Neil 1998, p.52"/>

Baldwin proved to be an adept businessman, and acquired a reputation as a modernising industrialist. He inherited £200,000, {{Inflation|UK|200000|1908|fmt=eq|cursign=£}},<ref>{{Cite book |last=George |first=Robert Lloyd |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=isk-DQAAQBAJ&q=stanley+baldwin+inheritance+200%2C000&pg=PT169 |title=A Modern Plutarch: Comparisons of the Greatest Western Thinkers |date=October 2016 |publisher=The Overlook Press |isbn=978-1-4683-1411-3 |language=en}}</ref> and a directorship of the [[Great Western Railway]] on the death of his father in 1908.