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titusnowlA one-night liaison between French gentleman-cabrioleur Arsène Lupin and an Englishwoman named Sarah Talbot resulted in a son, and Sarah's death in childbed. The orphaned offspring, christened Samuel, was subsequently raised by his grandmother at her country home in Essex. His boyhood was a happy one, if rather lonely, for although his grandmother raised him with care he had no playmates; however, he was blessed with a vivid imagination, and entertained himself by absorbing every adventure story he could lay his hands upon.
Following his grandmother's death when he was ten, he was sent to an orphanage; being nimble of both mind and hand and cleverly charismatic even at that tender age, his tenure there was not the misery that others have experienced in similar circumstances - although the staff of the institution were not sorry to bid him farewell when the time came, despite concurrently bidding farewell to a rather large proportion of their fenceable goods.
Upon being superannuated at the age of 16, young Sam Talbot attempted to enlist for the War, but was turned away due to his youth. He made several subsequent attempts, falsifying his age and living, meanwhile, by theft and con-artistry, before finally being accepted near his 17th birthday, mere weeks before the Armistice. He made it through the rather rudimentary training process to which the English army had by that time been reduced, and was, in fact, in France being shuttled toward the trenches when peace broke out; and so, not being particularly enthusiastic about serving if there were no battles to fight, he went absent without leave on November 12.
For the next year he rambled across the war-torn shambles of Western Europe under a series of pseudonyms, enjoying his own take on the traditional Grand Tour. October 28, 1919 found him in a small town in southern France, following up on a legend he had heard regarding a lost medieval knight's treasure in the ruins of a castle there; it just so happened to be his eighteenth birthday, as well as a saint's feast day, and this confluence of circumstances combined to inspire him to take the name by which he would be known for the rest of his increasingly noteworthy life:
Simon Templar.
Following his grandmother's death when he was ten, he was sent to an orphanage; being nimble of both mind and hand and cleverly charismatic even at that tender age, his tenure there was not the misery that others have experienced in similar circumstances - although the staff of the institution were not sorry to bid him farewell when the time came, despite concurrently bidding farewell to a rather large proportion of their fenceable goods.
Upon being superannuated at the age of 16, young Sam Talbot attempted to enlist for the War, but was turned away due to his youth. He made several subsequent attempts, falsifying his age and living, meanwhile, by theft and con-artistry, before finally being accepted near his 17th birthday, mere weeks before the Armistice. He made it through the rather rudimentary training process to which the English army had by that time been reduced, and was, in fact, in France being shuttled toward the trenches when peace broke out; and so, not being particularly enthusiastic about serving if there were no battles to fight, he went absent without leave on November 12.
For the next year he rambled across the war-torn shambles of Western Europe under a series of pseudonyms, enjoying his own take on the traditional Grand Tour. October 28, 1919 found him in a small town in southern France, following up on a legend he had heard regarding a lost medieval knight's treasure in the ruins of a castle there; it just so happened to be his eighteenth birthday, as well as a saint's feast day, and this confluence of circumstances combined to inspire him to take the name by which he would be known for the rest of his increasingly noteworthy life:
Simon Templar.
