 Attenborough was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys in Leicester and then won a scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge in 1945, where he studied geology and zoology and obtained a degree in natural sciences.In 1947, he was called up for national service in the Royal Navy and spent two years stationed in North Wales and the Firth of Forth.In 1950, Attenborough married Jane Elizabeth Ebsworth Oriel; she died in 1997.