 Cuthbert Worsley was born on 10 December 1907 in Durham, the son of a rising Anglican clergyman.He was the third of four sons, with one sister.His father, F. W. Worsley—a Doctor of Divinity, a holder of the Military Cross, a former holder of the English long jump record and obsessive sportsman, and eventually Dean of Llandaff Cathedral—was a dominating but dysfunctional force in family life until his abrupt desertion, with two suitcases, of both family and deanery, when Worsley was a university student.