Walter Horatio Pater was born 4 August 1839 in Shadwell, a district of East London, the younger son of Richard and Maria Pater. Dr. Pater was a surgeon whose practice seems to have consisted mostly in treating the many poor people living in the neighborhood. He died when his second son was only four years old. After Dr. Pater's death, Pater's mother moved with her four children to the north London suburb of Enfield, near the home of her sister, Pater's favorite "Aunt Bessie." Pater's older brother William left home at fifteen, in 1851, and Pater lived with his mother and two younger sisters, Clara and Hester. One may suppose that the young Pater felt the absence of male companionship during the later years at Enfield and was rather isolated from his mother and sisters. Certainly, his young fictional heroes seem to be loners, seeking eagerly but tentatively for glamorous, authoritative, older male friends.
In 1853 the Pater family moved to Harbledown, near Canterbury, so that Pater could attend the King's School, attached to the famous cathedral. As a day student, Pater lived at home and does not seem to have entered fully into school life.
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