Stephen Leacock

Stephen Leacock |

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Born | Stephen Butler Leacock

30 December 1869

Swanmore, Hampshire |

Died | 28 March 1944 (aged 74)

Toronto, Ontario |

Language | English |

Nationality | Canadian |

Citizenship | British subject |

Education | Upper Canada College |

Alma mater | University of TorontoUniversity of Chicago |

Genres | Humour |

Notable work(s) | Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, Arcadian Adventures With the Idle Rich |

Notable award(s) | Lorne Pierce Medal, Fellow of theRoyal Society of Canada |

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Early life[edit]

Stephen Leacock was born in Swanmore, Hampshire. He was the third of eleven children born to (Walter) Peter Leacock (b.1848), 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 plantations 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 and a brother of Sir Thomas Dacres Butler, Usher of the Black Rod. Leacock's mother, Agnes, was the half-sister of Major Thomas Adair Butler, who won the Victoria Cross during the Indian Mutiny.[3]

Peter's father, Thomas Murdock Leacock J.P., had already fostered plans to eventually send his son out to the 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.[4] When Stephen was six, he came out with his family came to Canada, where they settled on a farm near the...