Early Life
Denis Sefton Delmer, known familiarly as "Tom", was born in Berlin, Germany, but was registered as a British citizen with the British Consulate. His parents were from Australia. His father, Frederick Sefton Delmer, born in Hobart, Tasmania, was Professor of English Literature at Berlin University and author of a standard textbook for German schools. On the outbreak of the First World War he was interned in Ruhleben internment camp as an enemy alien. In 1917, in a prisoner exchange between the British and German governments, the family was repatriated to England.
Denis was educated at Friedrichwerdersches Gymnasium, Berlin, St Paul's School, London and Lincoln College, Oxford, where he obtained a second class degree in modern languages. He was brought up to speak only German until the age of five and as late as 1939 spoke English with a slight accent.
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