page_title: Francis Chichester
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Francis Chichester / Biography / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: The former Rectory in Shirwell in Devon, birthplace of Francis Chichester
context_page_description: Sir Francis Charles Chichester KBE was a British pioneering aviator and solo sailor.
  He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for becoming the first person to sail single-handed around the world by the clipper route and the fastest circumnavigator, in nine months and one day overall in 1966–67.
context_section_description: Chichester was born in the rectory at Shirwell near Barnstaple in Devon, England, the son of a Church of England clergyman, Charles Chichester, himself the seventh son of Sir Arthur Chichester, 8th Baronet. His mother was Emily Annie, daughter of Samuel Page. At the age of six he was sent as a boarder to The Old Ride Preparatory School for boys, then attended Marlborough College during World War I. At the age of eighteen Chichester emigrated to New Zealand where in ten years he built up a prosperous business in forestry, mining and property development, only to suffer severe losses in the Great Depression.
caption: The former Rectory in Shirwell, birthplace of Francis Chichester photographed in 2017
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