Ron's father was a decent hard working groundsman at a local sportsfield. With four children to support there would not have been much money spare. Ron attended school in Dronfield and from all accounts was a bright student.

Ron was the second child and the only boy in a family of four.

Between 14 and 16 he had scarlet fever and had to go into the Isolation Hospital on Holmeley Lane in Dronfield (it's still there but was transformed first into a home for the handicapped and then a private old peoples home). His sister, Dorothy remembers visiting him and having to wave through a small window.

Like many children of his generation he left school at 14 years of age. After leaving school he worked in a grocer's shop. I have been unable to determine if further education had been an option for him at that time but after the war he undertook further studies as an adult. At that time (1935) further education was often the privilege of the rich or at least the well off.