page_title: Hugh St. Leger
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Hugh St. Leger / Early life
caption_attribution_description: Blick von der Trumpington Street auf St Catharine's College mit Haupttor. Grade I listed building in Cambridge. Aufnahme 05-2014.
context_page_description: Hugh Anthony St. Leger was an English journalist and author of juvenile fiction. He was the third youngest of eight children, but his two younger siblings both died in early childhood. His father died when he was four and St. Leger was elected to a place at the Clergy Orphan School as a result. He turned his experiences in the Merchant Navy and as a Hussar in a solid background for boy's adventure fiction.
context_section_description: The England and Wales Christening Index shows him being baptised on 7 June 1857. He gave his age as 43 years and two months on 26 March 1900, which would give him a birth date in January 1857. He does not appear to be listed on the Index of Births. He was the sixth of eight children born to William Nassau St. Leger (1809 – 25 April 1861) and Mary Anne Penning York (c. 1842 – Q2 1889) William Nassau St. Leger had been born in Limerick, Ireland and was a Clergyman of the Church of England.
  His siblings were:
  Rupert (c. 1847 – 3 March 1916), who attended Queen Elizabeth's School in Ipswich as a Queen's Scholar. Rupert was also awarded an open scholarship at St. Catherine's College, Cambridge, worth some £40 plus a free room. He began his university career on 4 October 1865, was awarded his BA in 1869, ordained as a deacon in 1871, and as a priest in 1872. After 30 years as a curate, he was, in 1891, appointed Vicar to Ridgewell in Essex where he remained until his death. While a curate, he married Mary Jane Matthews (born c. 1885) a farmer's daughter, on 31 January 1880. The couple had 8 children, one of whom died before 1911. Rupert seems to have been a somewhat turbulent priest as he was summonsed for failing to pay the poor rate in May 1893. In August of 1893, his wife unsuccessfully prosecuted his curate for an indecent assault. In November, 1893 Rupert was back in court again, this time as a defendant as he was summonsed for failing to send one of his seven surviving children to school.
  Marion (c. 1849 – ) who worked as a governess, including for her brother Rupert. She became the third wife of Lear George Buckland Howe (c. 1844 – Q1 1914) in Stockwell on 4 July 1909.
  Warham (c. 1851 – Q3 1921) who attended the Clergy Orphan School at Canterbury and then Jesus College in Cambridge where he received his BA degree in 1876. He described himself initially as a journalist and later as a journalist and author in the census returns. The British Library shows him as having published several books, songs, and comic operas. He married Lisette Olivia Butler (c. 1849 – 1st quarter of 1919),, the daughter of a deceased clergyman, in London on 18 September 1895.
  Arthur (c. 1853 – ). The 1871 census found him in the Cavalry Barracks in Ipswich, having enlisted in the Royal Artillery. No further information on his career was found. Hubert followed him into the military several years later.
  William Douglas (c. 1855 – 22 December 1921), attended Aspley School in Aspley Guise, and became the organist there after leaving school, giving lessons in the piano and organ. He emigrated to India where he married the seventeen-year old Emma Ethel Antoinette Stuart (c. 1863 – 10 March 1882) on 21 June 1880. They had one child in the following year. He was then the organist at St. George's Anglican Cathedral in Madras (now called Chennai). Emma and her daughter died within days of each other in 1882. William married Helen Louise Clerk (23 August 1857 – Q1 1949) on 15 May 1889, and the couple had four children. William was an officer in the Madras Volunteer Guards and had reached the rank of Lt. Colonel when he retired in 1903. By 1913 he was the manager of The Madras Mail, and was still there in 1918. In 1920 he travelled to England where he died the following year.
  Ralph G (c. 1859 – Q3 1861) who died when he was two, in the same quarter as this younger sister.
  Anna (19 April 1861 – Q3 1961), who died as an infant. Her father died eight days after her birth.
caption: St. Catherine's College,  Cambridge
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