 Thomas Hans Orde-Lees was born on 23 May 1877, officially during his parents' holiday in Aachen in what was then Prussia.In fact he was the illegitimate child of Thomas Orde Hastings Lees, a former barrister and the Chief constable of Northampton, and Ada Mary Pattenden (1852–1932), a daughter of the Reverend Canon George Edwin Pattenden, headmaster of Boston Grammar School.Ada was sent off to Thomas' brother's house in Aachen for the birth.