Eric Arthur Blair better known as George Orwell was born on June 25 1903 in the Bengal region of east India. George’s great grandfather Charles Blair was a very wealthy plantation owner in Jamaica. His father Richard Walmesley Blair worked in the Opium department of the Indian civil Service. His mother Iba Mable Blair grew up in Burma with her French father and he was involved in speculative ventures. George had two sisters Marjorie and Avril.
When George was one he moved to England with his mom and sisters where they settled in Henley on Thames. He didn’t see his father again until he was 12. George attended St.Cyprian a well known boarding school. His family was low middle class meaning that his family was neither rich nor poor. He went to St.Cyprian on a scholarship so he only had to pay half of the fee.
George did a really good job in his first school. And it continued in the second school in Eton. He Graduated in 1921. Even though George was very smart he could not afford to go to college. So in 1922 he joined the Indian imperial police. His experiences in a British colony made him a role model to the poor. Because he saw how they lived and was disgusted. So he served 5 years as a police officer but quit because he couldn’t stand the fact that he was in a position that he looks down on people.
George had a problem with the way people categorized themselves into classes. Because of this his classmates used to find him angry and stubborn. For example he used to wear poor man clothes, he wouldn’t display table manners, and he wouldn’t wear winter clothes when it was cold. Some say this played a big part of him getting sick a lot. But his lifestyle had a big affect on his writing.