Lister Sinclair - Early Life

Early Life

Sinclair was born in Bombay, India to Scottish parents. His father, William Sheddon Sinclair, was a chemical engineer. He was sent to live with an aunt in London when he was 18 months old and did not see his parents again until he was seven.

He taught himself to read at the age of five and began his formal education at Colet Court. Though at the bottom of his class, he was gifted at mathematics and won a scholarship to St Paul's School in London. Assured by a travel agency that there would be no war, he visited North America with his mother in 1939 to attend the World's Fair in New York City. He was visiting Niagara Falls, Ontario when World War II broke out. Due to a back injury as a teenager, Sinclair walked with a limp and used a cane until well into his twenties and was unfit for military service. He and his mother found themselves stranded on the continent and settled in Vancouver where his mother had friends. He enrolled at the University of British Columbia where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in math and physics and began a lifelong friendship with classmate Pierre Berton. He also joined the Player's Club on campus. In 1942 he moved to Toronto to study towards a Master of Arts from the University of Toronto supporting himself by lecturing in mathematics to undergraduates.