John Suchet - Early Life

Early Life

Suchet's paternal grandfather was a Lithuanian Jew who shortened his name from Suchedowitz to Suchet when the father emigrated from South Africa to England in 1932; he became a medical student at St Mary's Hospital, London in 1933, and, later, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, working with Alexander Fleming on the role of penicillin in treating venereal disease. His mother, Joan, was Anglican. His maternal grandfather, James Jarché, was a famous Fleet Street photographer notable for the first pictures of Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson and also for his pictures of Louis Blériot (1909) and the Siege of Sidney Street.

Suchet was brought up with his two brothers Peter and David. He attended Uppingham School, Rutland before studying at the University of Dundee, from which he now holds an honorary doctorate. Peter is an advertising executive, and his younger brother, David, is an actor, best known for his portrayal of Agatha Christie's Poirot.