Page "Gerald Gardner (Wiccan)" Paragraph 6

In 1876 the family moved into one of the neighbouring houses, Ingle Lodge, and it was here that the couple's third son, Gerald Brosseau Gardner, was born on Friday 13 June 1884.

A fourth child, Francis Douglas Gardner, was then born in 1886.

Gardner would rarely see Harold, who went on to study Law at the University of Oxford, but saw more of Bob, who drew pictures for him, and Douglas, with whom he shared his nursery.

The Gardners employed an Irish nursemaid named Georgiana " Com " McCombie, who was entrusted with taking care of the young Gerald ; she would subsequently become the dominant figure of his childhood, spending far more time with him than his parents.

Gardner suffered with asthma from a young age, having particular difficulty in the cold Lancashire winters.

His nursemaid offered to take him to warmer climates abroad at his father's expense in the hope that this condition would not be so badly affected.

Subsequently, in summer 1888, Gerald and Com traveled via London to Nice in the south of France.

After several more years spent in the Mediterranean, in 1891 they went to the Canary Islands, and it was here that Gardner first developed his lifelong interest in weaponry.

From there, they then went on to Accra in the Gold Coast ( modern Ghana ).

Accra was followed by a visit to Funchal on the Portuguese colony of Madeira ; they would spend most of the next nine years on the island, only returning to England for three or four months in the summer.