George Orwell - A Warning to Mankind Documentary

The man known to history as George Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair on June 25, 1903, in Motihari, Bengal, India, then a part of the British Empire. His father, Richard Walmsley Blair, born in 1857, had moved to India at the age of eighteen to work in the British civil service as an opium agent, overseeing the production of the drug, which was primarily exported to China and became highly profitable for the British Empire.

Eric's mother, Ida Mabel Limouzin, was 21 when she married Richard. Born in Surrey to a French father and an English mother, Ida spent her childhood in Moulmein, Burma, where her family was well-established as merchants and traders. Before marrying Richard, she worked as a governess and later accompanied him across India as he fulfilled his administrative duties. 

At 39, Richard, nearly twice Ida's age, married her, and together they had two children. Their firstborn, Marjorie, arrived in 1898, and Eric followed in 1903, shortly after Richard was transferred to Motihari, near the Nepalese border.

Although the Blair family had aristocratic connections dating back to the 18th century, much of their wealth had dwindled by the time of Eric’s birth. While the family remained part of the upper-middle class, Eric's childhood was not one of material prosperity. Nevertheless, he grew up with a clear sense of the privilege that came with his place in the British social system.

In 1904, Eric moved to England with his mother and sister, while his father stayed behind in India. As an infant, Eric suffered from frequent lung-related illnesses, a condition that would continue to affect him throughout his life. By late 1905, the family had settled in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. Though he was often a solitary child, George Orwell, in later years, would fondly remember his childhood and claimed that he was his mother's favorite.