He was the youngest child of five born to Charles Denning and Clara Thompson. His father owned a draper's shop and his mother did the bookkeeping for the business. Denning attended elementary school at Whitchurch and then joined two of his brothers at Andover Grammar School. Denning excelled in both English and mathematics and won a scholarship to Magdalene College, Oxford.
After one year at Oxford, Denning was called to military service in the summer of 1917. He served a year and a half on the Western Front in the 151st Field Company of the Royal Engineers and then returned to his education. In 1920 Denning graduated First Class in mathematics. He then taught for a year at a prominent public school. However, as Jowell and McAuslan described in Lord Denning: The Judge and the Law, "he was ambitious and desired to be a man amongst men." Denning returned to Oxford on another scholarship and graduated First Class in the law school in 1922.
From the Bar to the Bench
In 1923 Denning was called to the Bar and began working in private practice. His early career consisted mainly of small civil work, such as landlord disputes and traffic accidents. Denning also began writing at this time.
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