Boris Johnson's childhood.

May 21, 2021 6:21 AM

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Aug 2020

Johnson was born on 19 June 1964 in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City,[19][20] to 23-year-old Stanley Johnson, then studying economics at Columbia University,[21] and 22-year-old Charlotte Fawcett,[22] an artist from a family of liberal intellectuals. Johnson's parents had married in 1963 before moving to the US,[23] where they lived opposite the Chelsea Hotel.[24] In September 1964, they returned to England, so that Charlotte could study at the University of Oxford;[25] during this time, she lived with her son in Summertown, a suburb of Oxford, and in 1965 she gave birth to a daughter, Rachel.[26] In July 1965, the family moved to Crouch End in north London,[27] and in February 1966 they relocated to Washington, D.C., where Stanley had gained employment with the World Bank.[28] A third child, Leo, was born in September 1967.[29] Stanley then gained employment with a policy panel on population control, and in June moved the family to Norwalk, Connecticut.[30]

In 1969, the family returned to England and settled into West Nethercote Farm, near Winsford in Somerset, Stanley's remote family home on Exmoor in the West Country.[31] There, Johnson gained his first experiences of fox hunting.[32] Stanley was regularly absent from Nethercote, leaving Johnson to be raised largely by his mother, assisted by au pairs.[33] As a child, Johnson was quiet and studious[27] and suffered from deafness, resulting in several operations to insert grommets into his ears.[34] He and his siblings were encouraged to engage in highbrow activities from a young age,[35] with high achievement being greatly valued; Johnson's earliest recorded ambition was to be "world king".[36] Having few or no friends other than their siblings, the children became very close.[37]

In late 1969, the family relocated to Maida Vale in West London, while Stanley began post-graduate research at the London School of Economics.[38] In 1970, Charlotte and the children briefly returned to Nethercote, where Johnson attended Winsford Village School, before returning to London to settle in Primrose Hill,[39] where they were educated at Primrose Hill Primary School.[40] A fourth child and third son, Joseph, was born in late 1971.[41]

After Stanley secured employment at the European Commission, he moved his family in April 1973 to Uccle, Brussels, where Johnson attended the European School, Brussels I and learnt to speak French.[42][43] Charlotte suffered a nervous breakdown and was hospitalised with clinical depression, after which in 1975 Johnson and his siblings were sent back to England to attend Ashdown House, a preparatory boarding school in East Sussex.[44] There, he developed a love of rugby and excelled at Ancient Greek and Latin,[45] but was appalled at the teachers' use of corporal punishment.[46] Meanwhile, in December 1978 his parents' relationship broke down; they divorced in 1980,[47] and Charlotte moved into a flat in Notting Hill, west London, where she was joined by her children for much of their time.[48]

Eton and Oxford: 1977–1987
As a kid I was extremely spotty, extremely nerdy and horribly swotty. My idea of a really good time was to travel across London on the tube to visit the British Museum.—Boris Johnson[49]

Johnson gained a King's Scholarship to study at Eton College, the elite independent boarding school near Windsor in Berkshire.[50] Arriving in the autumn term of 1977,[51] he began using his middle name Boris rather than his first name Alex,[52] and developed "the eccentric English persona" for which he became famous.[53] He abandoned his mother's Catholicism and became an Anglican, joining the Church of England.[54] School reports complained about his idleness, complacency and lateness,[55] but he was popular and well known at Eton.[53] His friends were largely from the wealthy upper-middle and upper classes, his best friends then being Darius Guppy and Charles Spencer, both of whom later accompanied him to the University of Oxford and remained friends into adulthood.[56] Johnson excelled in English and Classics, winning prizes in both,[57] and became secretary of the school debating society,[58] and editor of the school newspaper, The Eton College Chronicle.[59] In late 1981, he was elected a member of Pop,[60] the small, self-selecting elite and glamorous group of prefects. It was later in Johnson's career a point of rivalry with David Cameron, who had failed to enter Pop. On leaving Eton, Johnson went on a gap year to Australia, where he taught English and Latin at Timbertop, an Outward Bound-inspired campus of Geelong Grammar, an elite independent boarding school.[61][62][63]

Johnson read Classics at Balliol College, Oxford.
Johnson won a scholarship to read Literae Humaniores at Balliol College, Oxford, a four-year course in the study of the Classics, ancient literature and classical philosophy.[64] Matriculating at the university in late 1983,[65] he was one of a generation of Oxford undergraduates who were later to dominate British politics and media in the second decade of the 21st century; among them David Cameron, William Hague, Michael Gove, Jeremy Hunt and Nick Boles all went on to become senior Conservative Party politicians.[66] To his later regret, he joined the Old Etonian-dominated Bullingdon Club, an exclusive drinking society notorious for acts of vandalism on host premises.[67][68][69] Many years later, a group photograph including himself and Cameron in Bullingdon Club formal dress was the cause of much negative press coverage. He entered into a relationship with Allegra Mostyn-Owen, a glamorous and popular fellow student from his own social background; they became engaged while at university.[70]

Johnson was popular and well known at Oxford.[71] Alongside Guppy, he co-edited the university's satirical magazine Tributary.[72] In 1984, Johnson was elected secretary of the Oxford Union,[73] and campaigned unsuccessfully for the career-enhancing and important position of Union President.[74] In 1986, Johnson ran successfully for president,[75] but his term was not particularly distinguished or memorable[76] and questions were raised regarding his competence and seriousness.[77] Finally, Johnson was awarded an upper second-class degree,[78][79] and was deeply unhappy that he did not receive a first.[80]

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