Editing Peter Pears (section)

===Early years===
Pears was born in [[Farnham]], Surrey, the youngest of the seven children of Arthur Grant Pears and his wife, Jessie Elizabeth de Visme, daughter of [[Richard Luard]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=3RVXAAAAYAAJ&dq=luard+family+genealogy&pg=RA1-PA1135 Sir Bernard Burke, ''A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry''], 14th ed. (London 1925), pp. 1135−1137.</ref> Arthur Pears was a civil engineer and successful businessman, who spent much of his time working overseas. The biographers [[Christopher Headington]] and [[Donald Mitchell (writer)|Donald Mitchell]] both remark on two contrasting strands in Pears's heredity: the [[Luard family]] was notable for its naval and military connections, and on his father's side there was a strong religious tradition, both [[Anglicanism|Anglican]] and [[Quakers|Quaker]], with [[Elizabeth Fry]] counted among his ancestors.<ref>Headington, p. 1</ref> Mitchell comments that Pears's lifelong [[pacifism]] stemmed from the Quaker side of the family, and adds, "There was indeed something of the patrician Quaker in his looks, manners, and deeds. His habitual charm and courtesy rarely deserted him."<ref name=dnb>Mitchell, Donald. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/39913 "Pears, Sir Peter Neville Luard (1910–1986)"], Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, October 2006, accessed 15 October 2013 {{ODNBsub}}</ref>

Although his father, and sometimes his mother, were absent abroad for long periods, Pears evidently had a happy childhood.<ref name=dnb/> He enjoyed his schooldays at his [[Preparatory school (United Kingdom)|prep school]], The Grange, and his public school, [[Lancing College]], which he attended from 1923 to 1928.  He showed considerable talent for music, both as a pianist and as a singer, playing leading roles in school productions of [[Gilbert and Sullivan]] operas.<ref>Headington, pp. 22–23</ref> He was a capable and enthusiastic cricketer, and remembered all his life the pride he felt in scoring 81 not out in a trial match against [[Surrey County Cricket Club|Surrey]] at [[the Oval]].<ref>Headington, p. 26</ref> Lancing had a strong Christian tradition; while there, Pears felt a sense of vocation for the priesthood, but increasingly found this impossible to reconcile with his growing awareness of his homosexuality.<ref>Headington, p. 15</ref>

In 1928 Pears went to [[Keble College, Oxford]], to study music. He was not at this stage sure whether his musical future was as a singer or as player; during his brief time at the university, he was appointed temporary assistant organist at [[Hertford College, Oxford|Hertford College]], which was useful practical experience.<ref name=h27/> Headington comments that a musical conservatoire such as the [[Royal College of Music]] would have suited Pears better than the Oxford course, but at the time it was seen as a natural progression for an English public school boy to continue his education at Oxford or Cambridge. In the event Pears did not take to Oxford's academic regime, which required him to study a range of subjects before specialising in music. He failed the first-year examinations ([[Honour Moderations|Moderations]]) and though he was entitled to resit them he decided against doing so, and went down from Oxford.<ref name=h27>Headington, pp. 27–29</ref>