Geoffrey Elton - Upbringing

Upbringing

Elton was born in Tübingen, Germany, as Gottfried Rudolf Ehrenberg. His parents were the Jewish scholars Victor Ehrenberg and Eva Dorothea Sommer. In 1929, the Ehrenbergs moved to Prague, in the-then Czechoslovakia. In February 1939, the Ehrenbergs fled to Britain. Ehrenberg continued his education at Rydal School, a Methodist school in Wales, starting in 1939. After only two years, Ehrenberg was working as a teacher at Rydal and achieved the position of assistant master in Mathematics, History and German. While there, he took courses via correspondence at the University of London and graduated with a degree in Ancient History in 1943. Ehrenberg enlisted in the British Army in 1943. He spent his time in the Army in the Intelligence Corps and the East Surrey Regiment, serving with the Eighth Army in Italy from 1944 to 1946. During this period, Ehrenberg anglicised his name to Geoffrey Elton. After his discharge from the army, Elton studied early modern history at the University of London, graduating with a PhD in 1949. He took British citizenship in 1947.