Patrick Stanley Vaughan Heenan - Early Life

Early Life

Heenan's mother, Anne Stanley (born 1882), was not married at the time of her son's birth at Reefton, New Zealand. His birth certificate recorded her maiden name as his surname, and did not include any information about his father. Heenan's illegitimacy would have carried a great social stigma in western society, during the early part of the 20th century. A year later, both mother and son moved to Burma with a mining engineer named George Charles Heenan (born 1855). The older Heenan is described by some sources as an Irish republican, although he seems to have had a long association with New Zealand, including selection for a regional representative cricket team in 1882–83. There is no conclusive evidence that George Heenan was Patrick's father, or that George and Anne ever married. However, Patrick was baptised in Burma as a Catholic, with the surname Heenan. George Heenan died at Pauk, Burma in 1912. Patrick's mother then worked as a governess for a family named Carroll.

In 1922, the Carrolls moved to England, and Anne Stanley went with them. Mrs Carroll died a few years later, and Bernard Carroll, who was an accountant, married Anne. From 1923 to 1926, Patrick was a boarder at Sevenoaks School in Kent, and in 1927 began attending the elite Cheltenham College, as a day boy, in a stream of students preparing for military careers. Although he was then 16 years old, at Cheltenham he was put in classes with pupils as young as 13.

Accounts of his time at Sevenoaks and Cheltenham show Heenan to have been a poor student and — in the words of the ODNB — a "gloomy, resentful misfit disliked by other pupils". He nevertheless excelled at sports, especially boxing, due largely to his impressive physique. According to Elphick, Heenan was unpopular with other students at Cheltenham and was often in trouble with school authorities. Although he joined the Officers Training Corps (OTC) at Cheltenham, Heenan did not gain any formal qualifications; because of this, he was not able to be admitted to British Army officer training, when he left school at the age of 19. Heenan instead joined Steel Brothers, a trading company with interests in Asia.