The very model of a major . . . science-fictional Fortean.
Arthur Bertram Chandler was born 28 March 1912 in Aldershot, Hampshire, England. He was the son of Arthur Robert Chandler, a soldier who died in World War I when he was only three, and the former Ida Florence Calver. Chandler grew up in in Beccles, Suffolk, with his brother, his mother, and his mother’s family, where he attended Peddar’s Lane Council School and Sir John Leman School. His maternal grandparents were either, he said, upper working class or lower middle class, and solidly invested in English class status—which he was not. Once, when he was a child, he was thrown out of the house for arguing about King Edward VII’s abdication of the English throne to marry. “But she’s only a commoner,” his grandmother said incredulously. “What the hell does it matter?,” he replied.
Aged sixteen, he left school; as he remembered it, he failed his exams to continue on because of the officiousness of either his teacher or headmaster, and late in life would wonder what his other path would look like. He went to work as an apprentice on a tramp steamer line, working his way to Second Mate. In the mid-1930s—about the time he was thrown out of the house—he returned to landlubbing work, briefly, as he could not find a job aboard a ship. This was the Depression, after all. He did return to the sea soon enough, though, joining Shaw Savill Lines as a Fourth Officer. Chandler married for the first time, 25 May 1938; his wife was Joan Margaret Barnard. His ship ran a line between England and Australasia. With the onset of war, he was a gunnery officer. He obtained his master’s certificate in 1943. Bertram and Joan had three children, two daughters and a son: Penelope, Christopher, and Jennifer (who married the horror writer Ramsey Campbell).
Arthur Bertram Chandler was born 28 March 1912 in Aldershot, Hampshire, England. He was the son of Arthur Robert Chandler, a soldier who died in World War I when he was only three, and the former Ida Florence Calver. Chandler grew up in in Beccles, Suffolk, with his brother, his mother, and his mother’s family, where he attended Peddar’s Lane Council School and Sir John Leman School. His maternal grandparents were either, he said, upper working class or lower middle class, and solidly invested in English class status—which he was not. Once, when he was a child, he was thrown out of the house for arguing about King Edward VII’s abdication of the English throne to marry. “But she’s only a commoner,” his grandmother said incredulously. “What the hell does it matter?,” he replied.
Aged sixteen, he left school; as he remembered it, he failed his exams to continue on because of the officiousness of either his teacher or headmaster, and late in life would wonder what his other path would look like. He went to work as an apprentice on a tramp steamer line, working his way to Second Mate. In the mid-1930s—about the time he was thrown out of the house—he returned to landlubbing work, briefly, as he could not find a job aboard a ship. This was the Depression, after all. He did return to the sea soon enough, though, joining Shaw Savill Lines as a Fourth Officer. Chandler married for the first time, 25 May 1938; his wife was Joan Margaret Barnard. His ship ran a line between England and Australasia. With the onset of war, he was a gunnery officer. He obtained his master’s certificate in 1943. Bertram and Joan had three children, two daughters and a son: Penelope, Christopher, and Jennifer (who married the horror writer Ramsey Campbell).