Early Life
John Pendlebury was born in London, the eldest son of Herbert S Pendlebury, a London surgeon, and Lilian D Devitt, a daughter of Thomas Devitt, part owner of Devitt and Moore, a shipping company. At the age of about two, he lost an eye in an accident of unknown nature while in the care of a friend of his parents, who were away for a few days. On their return conflicting reports of the accident were given. The eye could not be successfully treated. He used a prosthetic glass eye, which, it has been said by people who knew him, was generally mistaken for a real one. Throughout his life he remained determined to out-perform persons with two eyes. As a child he was taken to see Wallis Budge at the British Museum. During the conversation he apparently resolved to become an Egyptian archaeologist. Budge told him to study Classics before making up his mind. His mother died when he was 17, leaving him a legacy from his grandfather that made him financially independent. His father remarried, but had no further children. Pendlebury got along well with his stepmother and her son, Robin. He remained the centre of his father's affections, whom he called "daddy" in letters.
He was educated at Winchester (1918-1923), before winning scholarships at Pembroke College, Cambridge where he was awarded a Second in Part I and a First in Part II of the Classical Tripos, "with distinction in archaeology." Despite his disability, he also shone as a sportsman, with an athletics blue and competing internationally as a high jumper.
Read more about this topic: John Pendlebury
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early and/or life:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“For with this desire of physical beauty mingled itself early the fear of death—the fear of death intensified by the desire of beauty.”
—Walter Pater 1839–1894, British writer, educator. originally published in Macmillan’s Magazine (Aug. 1878)
“Human life consists in mutual service. No grief, pain, misfortune, or “broken heart,” is excuse for cutting off one’s life while any power of service remains. But when all usefulness is over, when one is assured of an unavoidable and imminent death, it is the simplest of human rights to choose a quick and easy death in place of a slow and horrible one.”
—Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935)