Editing Stephen Leacock (section)

== Early life ==
Stephen Leacock was born on 30 December 1869 in [[Swanmore]],{{sfn|MacMillan|2009|p=173}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/200/301/nlc-bnc/stephen_leacock-ef/2001/t5-214-e.html|title=National Library of Canada: Stephen Leacock|access-date=10 December 2017}}</ref> a village near [[Southampton]] in southern England. He was the third of the eleven children born to (Walter) Peter Leacock (b.1834), who was born and grew up at Oak Hill on the [[Isle of Wight]], an estate that his grandfather had purchased after returning from [[Madeira]] where his family had made a fortune out of [[plantation]]s and Leacock's [[Madeira wine]], founded in 1760. Stephen's mother, Agnes, was born at [[Soberton]], the youngest daughter by his second wife (Caroline Linton Palmer) of the Rev. Stephen Butler, of Bury Lodge, the Butler estate that overlooked the village of [[Hambledon, Hampshire]]. Stephen Butler (for whom Leacock was named), was the maternal grandson of Admiral [[James Richard Dacres (1749–1810)|James Richard Dacres]] and a brother of Sir Thomas Dacres Butler, [[Usher of the Black Rod]]. Leacock's mother was the half-sister of Major [[Thomas Adair Butler]], who won the [[Victoria Cross]] at the siege and capture of Lucknow in India.

Peter's father, Thomas Murdock Leacock J.P., had already conceived plans eventually to send his son out to the [[British colonies|colonies]], but when he discovered that at age eighteen Peter had married Agnes Butler without his permission, almost immediately he shipped them out to South Africa where he had bought them a farm.  The farm in South Africa failed and Stephen's parents returned to [[Hampshire]], where he was born.<ref name="ReferenceA">My Uncle Stephen Leacock – Elizabeth Kimball, 1983</ref> When Stephen was six, the family moved to Canada, where they settled on a farm near the village of [[Sutton, Ontario]], and the shores of [[Lake Simcoe]].<ref name="slmfh">{{cite web|url=http://www.leacock.ca/STEPHEN.htm|title=stephenleacock.png|work=The Leacock Associates}}</ref> Their farm in the township of [[Georgina, Ontario|Georgina]] was also unsuccessful, and the family was kept afloat by money sent from Leacock's paternal grandfather. Stephen's father, Peter, became an alcoholic; in the fall of 1878, Peter travelled west to [[Manitoba]] with his brother [[Edward Leacock|E.P. Leacock]] (the subject of Stephen's book ''My Remarkable Uncle,'' published in 1942), leaving behind Agnes and the children.<ref name="epe.lac-bac.gc.ca">{{cite web | url=https://gutenberg.ca/ebooks/leacock-mydiscoveryofthewest/leacock-mydiscoveryofthewest-00-h.html | title=My Discovery of the West | work=Gutenberg.ca | author=Stephen Leacock | date=2011-06-20 | access-date=2021-01-15}}</ref>

Stephen Leacock, always of obvious intelligence, was sent by his grandfather to the elite private school of [[Upper Canada College]] in [[Toronto]], also attended by his older brothers, where he was top of the class and was chosen as head boy.  Leacock graduated in 1887, and returned home to find that his father had returned from Manitoba. Soon after, his father left the family again and never returned.<ref name="epe.lac-bac.gc.ca" /> There is some disagreement about what happened to Peter Leacock.  One scenario is that he went to live in Argentina,<ref>{{cite news | url=https://nationalpost.com/afterword/cbcs-new-stephen-leacock-movie-visits-authors-troubles | title=CBC's new Stephen Leacock movie visits author's troubles | work=National Post | author=Robert Fulford | date=2012-02-07 | access-date=2021-01-15}}</ref> while other sources indicate that he moved to [[Nova Scotia]] and changed his name to Lewis.<ref name="epe.lac-bac.gc.ca"/>

In 1887, seventeen-year-old Leacock started at [[University College, Toronto|University College]] at the [[University of Toronto]], where he was admitted to the [[Zeta Psi]] fraternity. His first year was bankrolled by a small scholarship, but Leacock found he could not return to his studies the following year because of financial difficulties. He left university to work as a teacher—an occupation he disliked immensely—at [[Strathroy, Ontario|Strathroy]], [[Uxbridge, Ontario|Uxbridge]] and finally in Toronto. As a teacher at Upper Canada College, his ''alma mater'', he was able simultaneously to attend classes at the University of Toronto and, in 1891, earn his degree through part-time studies. It was during this period that his first writing was published in ''[[The Varsity (newspaper)|The Varsity]]'', a campus newspaper.