Editing Frances Yates (section)

===Youth: 1899&ndash;1913===
{{Quote box|width=25em|align=right|quote=It seems to me now the Golden Age, in which the security and stability of the Victorian era were still intact and seemed the natural state of affairs, which would continue for ever (though in a less severe and easier form). It was not, of course, a golden age for all, but for me it was a time of perfect safety and happiness when I first put down roots of experience and inquiry in a world which made sense.|source=— Frances Yates, on her childhood{{sfn|Jones|2008|p=22}}}}

Frances Amelia Yates was born on 28 November 1899 in the southern English coastal town of [[Southsea]].{{sfn|Jones|2008|p=1}} She was the fourth child of middle-class parents, James Alfred and Hannah Malpas Yates, and had two sisters, Ruby and Hannah, and a brother, Jimmy.{{sfn|Jones|2008|pp=1, 3}} James was the son of a [[Royal Navy]] gunner, and occupied a senior position, overseeing the construction of [[dreadnoughts]]. He was a keen reader, ensuring that his children had access to plenty of books.{{sfn|Jones|2008|pp=2&ndash;3}}
James was a devout [[Anglicanism|Anglican]] Christian, influenced by the [[Oxford Movement]] and sympathetic to the [[Catholic Church]].{{sfn|Jones|2008|p=4}} Frances was christened in February 1900 at [[St Ann's Church, HMNB Portsmouth|St. Anne's Church in the dockyard]],{{sfn|Jones|2008|p=2}} although from an early age had doubts about Christianity and the literal accuracy of the [[Bible]].{{sfn|Jones|2008|p=8}}

In 1902, James was transferred to [[Chatham Dockyards]],{{sfn|Jones|2008|p=6}} and then in December 1903 he relocated to [[Glasgow]] to become superintendent of shipbuilding on the [[River Clyde]].{{sfn|Jones|2008|pp=7, 16}} There, the family began attending the Scottish Episcopal Church of St. Mary.{{sfn|Jones|2008|pp=18&ndash;19}} James retired in 1911, although continued to offer his advice and expertise to the dockyards.{{sfn|Jones|2008|p=19}} The family moved regularly over the coming years, from a farmhouse in [[Ingleton, North Yorkshire|Ingleton]], [[Yorkshire]], to [[Llandrindod Wells]], to [[Ripon]], to [[Harrogate]], and then to [[Oxton, Merseyside|Oxton]] in [[Cheshire]].{{sfn|Jones|2008|pp=20&ndash;21}} They also took annual holidays to France each summer.{{sfn|Jones|2008|p=3}}

Throughout this period, Yates's education was haphazard. In her early years, she was home schooled, being taught to read by her sisters before her mother took over her education as they moved away from home.{{sfn|Jones|2008|pp=3, 13&ndash;14}} When in Glasgow she briefly attended the private Laurel Bank School,{{sfn|Jones|2008|p=16}} but wouldn't attend school for two years after leaving the city.{{sfn|Jones|2008|p=19}} Despite a lack of formal education, she read avidly, impressed by the plays of [[William Shakespeare]],{{sfn|Jones|2008|p=23}} and the poetry of the [[Romanticism|Romantics]] and [[Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood|Pre-Raphaelites]], in particular that of [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]] and [[John Keats]].{{sfn|Jones|2008|pp=32&ndash;33}} She also began to write; in March 1913, Yates published a short story in the ''Glasgow Weekly Herald''.{{sfn|Jones|2008|pp=16&ndash;18}} Aged 16 she began writing a diary, in which she stated that "my brother wrote poems, my sister writes novels, my other sister paints pictures and I, I must & ''will'' do something. I am not much good at painting, I am no good at all at music, so there is only writing left. So I will write."{{sfn|Jones|2008|pp=24&ndash;26}}