The H.G.Wells Resource Site: Quote
Memories of a Misspent Youth
"I was born at a place called Bromley in Kent, a suburb of the damnedest,
in 1866, educated at a bestly little private school there until I was thirteen,
apprenticed on a trial to all sorts of trades, attracted the attention
of a man called Byatt, Headmaster of Midhurst Grammar School, by the energy
with which I mopped up Latin for a necessary examination while apprenticed
(on approval of course!) to a chemist there, became a kind of teaching
scholar to him, got a scholarship at the Royal College of Science, S Kensington
(1884), worked there three years, started a students' journal, read abundantly
in the Dyce and Foster library, failed my last year's examination (geology),
wandered into the wilderness of private school teaching, had a lung haemorrhage,
got a London degree B.Sc. (1889) with a first- and second-class honours,
private coaching, Globe turnovers, article in the Fortnightly (1890), edited
an obscure educational paper, had haemorrhage for the second time (1893),
chucked coaching and went for journalism."
(Quoted in Grant Richards, Memories of a Misspent Youth, London
1932, pp. 327-8).