Editing Jeremy Thorpe (section)

==Family background and early childhood==

Thorpe was born in [[South Kensington]], London, on 29 April 1929.{{sfn|Bloch|2014|p=25}} His father was [[John Henry Thorpe]], a lawyer and politician who was the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|MP]] for [[Manchester Rusholme]] between 1919 and 1923.{{sfn|Bloch|2014|pp=9–10}} His mother, Ursula Norton-Griffiths (1903–1992), was the daughter of another Conservative MP, [[John Norton-Griffiths|Sir John Norton-Griffiths]], widely known as "Empire Jack" because of his passionate imperialism.{{sfn|Bloch|2014|pp=15–16}} The Thorpe family claimed kinship with distant forebears carrying the name, including [[Robert Thorpe (Lord Chancellor)|Sir Robert Thorpe]], who was briefly [[Lord Chancellor]] in 1372, and [[Thomas Thorpe (speaker)|Thomas Thorpe]], who was [[Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom)|Speaker of the House of Commons]] in 1453–54. There is no direct evidence of any link between these figures and Jeremy Thorpe's family.{{sfn|Bloch|2014|pp=3–4}}

The more recent Thorpe ancestors were Irish, stemming from the elder of two brothers who were, according to family tradition, soldiers under Cromwell during the re-conquest of Ireland. Both were rewarded with land; the descendants of the younger brother—from [[County Carlow]]—prospered in [[Dublin]] as [[Sheriff of Dublin City|High Sheriffs]] and [[List of mayors of Dublin|Lord Mayors]], but those of the elder lost their land and became tenant farmers and tradesmen.{{sfn|Bloch|2014|pp=3–4}} Jeremy Thorpe's great-grandfather, William Thorpe, was a Dublin policeman who, having been a labourer, joined the police as a constable and rose to the rank of superintendent. One of his many sons, [[John Thorpe (priest)|John Thorpe]], became an Anglican priest and served as [[Archdeacon of Macclesfield]] from 1922 to 1932. The archdeacon's marriage in 1884 to a daughter of the prosperous [[Anglo-Irish]] Aylmer family brought considerable wealth to the Thorpes, as did his elder daughter Olive's marriage into the influential Christie-Miller family of Cheshire. Both John Henry and Jeremy Thorpe would benefit from this connection, as the Christie-Millers paid the costs of their education.{{sfn|Bloch|2014|pp=8–10}}

Jeremy was his parents' third child, following two sisters.{{sfn|Bloch|2014|pp=3–4}} His upbringing was privileged and protected, under the care of [[nannies]] and nursemaids until, in 1935, he began attending Wagner's day school in [[Queen's Gate]].{{sfn|Bloch|2014|pp=26–28}} He became a proficient violinist, and often performed at school concerts.{{sfn|Thorpe|1999|p=33}} Although John Henry Thorpe was no longer in parliament, he had maintained many of his political contacts and friendships, and leading politicians were regularly entertained at the Thorpe home. Among the strongest of these friendships was that with the [[Lloyd George]] family—Ursula Thorpe was a close friend of the former [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] prime minister's daughter, [[Megan Lloyd George|Megan]], who became Jeremy's godmother. The former prime minister [[David Lloyd George]], an occasional visitor, became Jeremy's political hero and role model, and helped form his ambitions for a political career in the Liberal Party.{{sfn|Bloch|2014|pp=32–36}}