Editing George Orwell (section)

===Early years===
[[File:Birth-Place-George-Orwell-Motihari.jpg|thumb|Orwell's birthplace in [[Motihari]], [[Bihar]], India]]

Eric Arthur Blair was born on 25 June 1903 in [[Motihari]], Bengal Presidency (now [[Bihar]]), [[British Raj|British India]], into what he described as a "[[Middle class|lower-upper-middle class]]" family.<ref name="ODNB">{{Cite book |last=Crick |first=Bernard |author-link=Bernard Crick |title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |year=2004 |chapter=Eric Arthur Blair [''pseud.'' George Orwell] (1903–1950)}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=The Road to Wigan Pier |page=1 |chapter=8 |date=1937 |last=Orwell |first=George |publisher=[[Left Book Club]]}}</ref> His great-great-grandfather Charles Blair was a wealthy slave-owning [[Landed gentry|country gentleman]] and [[Absentee landlord|absentee owner]] of two [[List of plantations in Jamaica|Jamaican plantations]];<ref name="LBS Charles Blair">{{cite web |title=Legacies of British Slavery |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146636746 |website=Legacies of British Slavery |publisher=University College London |access-date=28 April 2024}}</ref> hailing from [[Dorset]], he married Lady Mary Fane, daughter of [[Thomas Fane, 8th Earl of Westmorland]].<ref name="Stansky">{{Cite book|first1=Peter|last1=Stansky|author-link=Peter Stansky|first2=William|last2=Abrahams|title=The Unknown Orwell and Orwell: The Transformation|publisher=[[Stanford University Press]]|location=[[Stanford, California]]|year=1994|pages=[https://archive.org/details/unknownorwellorw00stan/page/5 5–12]|chapter=From Bengal to St Cyprian's|isbn=978-0804723428 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/unknownorwellorw00stan|url=https://archive.org/details/unknownorwellorw00stan/page/5}}</ref> His grandfather Thomas Richard Arthur Blair was an [[Church of England|Anglican]] clergyman. Orwell's father was Richard Walmesley Blair, who worked as a Sub-Deputy Opium Agent in the [[Royal Commission on Opium#History|Opium Department]] of the [[Indian Civil Service]], overseeing the production and storage of [[opium]] for sale to China.<ref name="Taylor">{{Cite book |last=Taylor |first=D.J. |title=Orwell: The Life |publisher=Henry Holt and Company |year=2003 |isbn=978-0805074734 |url=https://archive.org/details/orwelllife00tayl}}; {{Cite web |last=Chowdhury |first=Amlan |title=George Orwell's Birthplace in Motihari to Turn Museum |url=https://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/en/newsdetail/index/9/15774/george-orwells-birthplace-in-motihari-to-turn-museum |access-date=26 February 2022 |website=www.thecitizen.in |date=16 December 2018 |language=en-US}}; {{Cite news |last1=Haleem |first1=Suhail |date=11 August 2014 |newspaper=BBC News |title=The Indian Animal Farm where Orwell was born |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28739420}}; {{Cite web |date=14 August 2014 |access-date=2 February 2023 |title=Arena News Week: Frank Maloney, George Orwell Museum and Giant Panda Tian Tian |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/arena/entries/fb151770-ff16-39a5-b426-f0e7904fa31e |website=BBC |language=en}}; {{Cite web |last=Rahman |first=Maseeh |date=30 June 2014 |title=George Orwell's birthplace in India set to become a museum |website=[[TheGuardian.com]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/30/george-orwell-birthplace-motihari-bihar-india-museum}}</ref> Orwell's mother, Ida Mabel Blair (''née'' Limouzin), grew up in [[Moulmein]], Burma, where her French father was involved in speculative ventures.<ref name="Stansky" /> Eric had two sisters: Marjorie, five years older; and Avril, five years younger. When Eric was one year old, his mother took him and Marjorie to England.<ref name="crick48">Crick (1982), p. 48</ref>{{refn|Stansky and Abrahams suggested that Ida Blair moved to England in 1907, based on information given by her daughter Avril, talking about a time before she was born. This is contrasted by Ida Blair's 1905, as well as a photograph of Eric, aged three, in an English suburban garden.<ref name=crick48/> The earlier date coincides with a difficult posting for Blair senior, and the need to start their daughter Marjorie (then six years old) in an English education.|group= n}} In 2014 restoration work began on Orwell's birthplace and ancestral house in Motihari.<ref>{{cite web|title=Renovation of British Author George Orwell's house in Motihari begins|url=http://news.biharprabha.com/2014/06/renovation-of-british-author-george-orwells-house-in-motihari-begins/|work=IANS|publisher=news.biharprabha.com|access-date=26 June 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140629044724/http://news.biharprabha.com/2014/06/renovation-of-british-author-george-orwells-house-in-motihari-begins/|archive-date=29 June 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[File:ShiplakeBlairHome01.JPG|alt=|thumb|left|Blair family home at [[Shiplake]], Oxfordshire]]
In 1904, Ida settled with her children at [[Henley-on-Thames]] in Oxfordshire. Eric was brought up in the company of his mother and sisters and, apart from a brief visit in mid-1907,<ref>A Kind of Compulsion 1903–36, xviii</ref> he did not see his father until 1912.<ref name=Taylor/> Aged five, Eric was sent as a day student to a [[Teaching order|convent school]] in Henley-on-Thames. It was a Catholic [[convent]] run by French [[Ursulines|Ursuline]] nuns.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Gordon |last=Bowker |title=George Orwell |page=21}}</ref> His mother wanted him to have a [[Public school (United Kingdom)|public school]] education, but his family could not afford it. Through the social connections of Ida's brother Charles Limouzin, Blair gained a scholarship to [[St Cyprian's School]] in [[Eastbourne]], East Sussex.<ref name=Taylor/> Arriving in September 1911, he boarded for the next five years, returning home only for holidays. Although he knew nothing of the reduced fees, he "soon recognised that he was from a poorer home".<ref>Bowker p. 30</ref> Blair hated the school<ref>{{Cite book |first=Alaric |last=Jacob |author-link=Alaric Jacob |chapter=Sharing Orwell's Joys, but not his Fears |editor-first=Christopher |editor-last=Norris |title=Inside the Myth |publisher=Lawrence and Wishart |year=1984}}</ref> and many years later wrote an essay "[[Such, Such Were the Joys]]", published posthumously, based on his time there. At St Cyprian's, Blair first met [[Cyril Connolly]], who became a writer and who, as the editor of ''[[Horizon (British magazine)|Horizon]]'', published several of Orwell's essays.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-century Literature in English |date=1996 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=517}}</ref>

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Before the [[First World War]], the family moved {{convert|2|mi|0}} south to [[Shiplake]], Oxfordshire, where Eric became friendly with the Buddicom family, especially their daughter [[Jacintha Buddicom|Jacintha]]. When they first met, he was standing on his head in a field. Asked why, he said, "You are noticed more if you stand on your head than if you are right way up."<ref name="autogenerated1">{{Cite book |first=Jacintha |last=Buddicom |author-link=Jacintha Buddicom |title=Eric and Us |publisher=Frewin |year=1974 |isbn=978-0856320767 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/ericusremembranc0000budd }}</ref> Growing up together, Buddicom and Blair became idealistic adolescent sweethearts, reading and writing poetry together, and dreaming of becoming famous writers.<ref name="Times Media Limited">{{cite news |last1=Taylor |first1=D.J. |title=George Orwell: lost letter revealed |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/2e21f026-326a-4639-90eb-0a607b4f31c0 |access-date=22 September 2024 |agency=The Times |publisher=Times Media Limited |date=17 April 2010}}</ref> Blair also enjoyed shooting, fishing and birdwatching with Jacintha's brother and sister.<ref name="autogenerated1"/>

While at St Cyprian's, Blair wrote two poems that were published in the ''[[Henley Standard|Henley and South Oxfordshire Standard]]''.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Henley and South Oxfordshire Standard |date=2 October 1914}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Henley and South Oxfordshire Standard |date=21 July 1916}}</ref> He came second to Connolly in the [[Harrow History Prize]], had his work praised by the school's external examiner, and earned scholarships to [[Wellington College, Berkshire|Wellington]] and [[Eton College|Eton]]. But inclusion on the Eton scholarship roll did not guarantee a place, and none was immediately available. He chose to stay at St Cyprian's until December 1916, in case a place at Eton became available.<ref name=Taylor/>

[[File:Awake! Young Men of England.jpg|thumb|left|upright=.9|First World War poem by 11-year-old Blair, "Awake! Young Men of England", published in 1914 in the ''[[Henley Standard|Henley and South Oxfordshire Standard]]'']]
In January, Blair took up the place at Wellington, where he spent the Spring term. In May 1917 a place became available as a [[King's Scholar]] at Eton. At this time the family lived at Mall Chambers, Notting Hill Gate. Blair remained at Eton until December 1921, when he left midway between his 18th and 19th birthdays. Wellington was "beastly", Blair told Jacintha, but he said he was "interested and happy" at Eton.<ref>Jacintha Buddicom, ''Eric and Us'', p. 58</ref> His principal tutor was [[A. S. F. Gow]], Fellow of [[Trinity College, Cambridge]], who gave him advice later in his career.<ref name=Taylor/> Blair was taught French by [[Aldous Huxley]]. [[Steven Runciman]], who was at Eton with Blair, noted that he and his contemporaries appreciated Huxley's linguistic flair.<ref name=Wadhams/>

Blair's performance reports suggest he neglected his studies,<ref name=Wadhams/> but he worked with [[R. A. B. Mynors|Roger Mynors]] to produce a college magazine, ''The Election Times'', joined in the production of other publications—''College Days'' and ''Bubble and Squeak''—and participated in the [[Eton Wall Game]]. His parents could not afford to send him to university without another scholarship, and they concluded from his poor results he would not be able to win one. Runciman noted he had a romantic idea about the [[Eastern world|East]],<ref name=Wadhams>{{Cite book |first=Stephen |last=Wadhams |title=Remembering Orwell |publisher=Penguin |year=1984}}</ref> and the family decided Blair should join the [[Imperial Police]], the precursor of the Indian Police Service. For this he had to pass an entrance examination. In December 1921, he left Eton and travelled to join his retired father, mother, and younger sister Avril, who that month had moved to 40 Stradbroke Road, [[Southwold]], Suffolk, the first of their four homes in the town.<ref name=Binns>{{Cite book |last=Binns|first=Ronald |title=Orwell in Southwold |publisher=Zoilus Press |year=2018 |isbn=978-1999735920}}</ref> Blair was enrolled at a [[crammer]] there called Craighurst, and brushed up on his Classics, English, and History. He passed the exam, coming seventh out of the 26 who passed.<ref name=Taylor/><ref>''A Kind of Compulsion'', p. 87, gives Blair as seventh of ''29'' successful candidates, and 21st of the 23 successful candidates who passed the Indian Imperial Police riding test, in September 1922.</ref>