Early Life
Johns was born in Bengeo, Hertfordshire, England, the son of a tailor, and Elizabeth Johns (née Earl), the daughter of a master butcher. His brother, Russell Ernest Johns, was born on 24 October 1895. Johns' early ambition was to be a soldier, being a crack shot with a rifle. In January 1905, he attended Hertford Grammar School (now the Richard Hale School). He also attended evening classes at the local art school.
Johns was not a natural scholar. He included some of his experiences at this school in his book Biggles Goes to School (1951). In the summer of 1907 he was apprenticed to a county municipal surveyor for four years and in 1912 was appointed as a sanitary inspector in Swaffham in Norfolk. Soon after, his father died of tuberculosis at the age of 47. On 6 October 1914 Johns married Maude Penelope Hunt (1882–1961), the daughter of the Rev. John Hunt, the vicar at Little Dunham in Norfolk. Their only son, William Earl Carmichael Johns, was born in March 1916.
Read more about this topic: W. E. Johns
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