Background
Smiley was the 4th and youngest son of Sir John Smiley, 2nd Baronet and Valerie Champion de Crespigny, youngest daughter of Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny, who was a noted jockey, balloonist, sportsman and adventurer.
His father fought in the Second Boer War between 1899 and 1900 with 4th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and before joining the North of Ireland Imperial Yeomanry (redesignated North Irish Horse in 1908). He gained the rank of Major in the service of the Carabiniers (6th Dragoon Guards) and fought in World War I.
David Smiley was educated at the Nautical College, Pangbourne, Berkshire, England, where he was a noted sportsman.
Some have suggested that John le Carré unconsciously took David Smiley's surname for that of his hero George Smiley.
Read more about this topic: David Smiley
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“Pilate with his question “What is truth?” is gladly trotted out these days as an advocate of Christ, so as to arouse the suspicion that everything known and knowable is an illusion and to erect the cross upon that gruesome background of the impossibility of knowledge.”
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“They were more than hostile. In the first place, I was a south Georgian and I was looked upon as a fiscal conservative, and the Atlanta newspapers quite erroneously, because they didn’t know anything about me or my background here in Plains, decided that I was also a racial conservative.”
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