Editing Bernard Manning (section)

==Early life==
Manning was born in [[Harpurhey]], [[Lancashire]], and raised in [[Ancoats]], both poor districts of [[Manchester]], the second of three brothers and two sisters.<ref name="Timesobit" /><ref name="Dixon">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/jun/18/guardianobituaries.obituaries1|access-date=18 June 2007 |work=The Guardian| title=Bernard Manning|location=London|first=Stephen|last=Dixon|date=18 June 2007}}</ref> He had [[Russian Jew]]ish ancestry on his father's side, as well as roots in Ireland, and was brought up a "strict Catholic".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.totallyjewish.com/news/national/?content_id=6527 |work=totallyjewish.com |title=Was Bernard a nice Jewish boy? |date=21 June 2007 |access-date=15 August 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090210081816/http://www.totallyjewish.com/news/national/?content_id=6527 |archive-date=10 February 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/smgpubs/access/1290701541.html?dids=1290701541:1290701541&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jun+19%2C+2007&author=&pub=The+Herald&desc=Bernard+Manning&pqatl=google | archive-url=https://archive.today/20120712213312/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/smgpubs/access/1290701541.html?dids=1290701541:1290701541&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jun+19,+2007&author=&pub=The+Herald&desc=Bernard+Manning&pqatl=google | url-status=dead | archive-date=12 July 2012 | work=The Herald | title=Bernard Manning | date=19 June 2007}}</ref> He claimed, in an interview with ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]''{{'}}s [[Allison Pearson]], that his paternal grandfather came from [[Sevastopol|Sebastopol]], and changed the family name from Blomberg.<ref>{{cite news|last=Pearson|first=Allison|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4711492/Welcome-to-my-insulting-room.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160226163508/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4711492/Welcome-to-my-insulting-room.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=26 February 2016|title='Welcome to my insulting room'|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=10 January 1998|access-date=16 October 2019}}</ref>

He left school aged 14, worked in a tobacco factory and joined his father's [[greengrocer]]y business,<ref>{{cite news|last=Williams|first=Rachel|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/jun/19/theatrenews.theatre|title=Controversial comedian Bernard Manning dies|newspaper=The Guardian|date=19 June 2007|access-date=20 May 2020}}</ref> before joining the [[British Army]] to do his [[Conscription in the United Kingdom#After 1945|National Service]].<ref name="BBCobit">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3867363.stm|title=Obituary: Bernard Manning|work=BBC News|date=18 June 2007|access-date=18 June 2007}}</ref>

Manning had little thought of entertainment as a career, until posted to Germany where, in his self-written obituary (in which he claimed to have guarded [[Nazi Party|Nazi]] war criminals [[Rudolf Hess]] and [[Albert Speer]] in [[Spandau Prison]], [[Berlin]], just after the [[Second World War]]),<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6766611.stm|title=Manning penned his own obituary|work=BBC News|date=19 June 2007}}</ref> he began to sing popular songs to entertain his fellow soldiers and pass the time. This ability led him to put on free shows at the weekends; when he began to charge admission and audiences did not decrease, he realised that there was a possibility of making money from show business.