Leslie Howard, The Early Years - Part One

Howard was born Leslie Howard Steiner April 3, 1893, in Forest Hill, London, to Ferdinand and Lilian Steiner (née Blumberg). Lilian's first ancestor in England, Leslie's great grandfather, Ludwig Alexander Blumberg, emigrated to England from Courland in Russia in 1834. The family's language and culture was Germanic and their religion, Jewish. However, once Ludwig arrived in London, he jettisoned his religion and changed his name to Louis so as to fit in with "respectable" society. He was very successful at importing luxury goods, so successful in fact that he was the first resident of a newly built mansion at 20 Kensington Palace Gardens, now owned by the Sultan of Brunei.

One of his six children was Charles Blumberg who married Mary Elizabeth Roworth in 1868. Her father was in the printing business and his name is mentioned in Jane Austen's letters. Charles and Mary lived in Upper Norwood, known for its associations to the arts, and they had frequent presentations at their home. This is where their daughter, Lilian, met her future husband, Ferdinand Steiner. Ferdinand was only 28 and Lilian's parents did not approve of him. Apparently, he was too "old country" Jewish and German. But Lilian won out and the two were married in the West London Synagogue in 1891. Ferdinand, apparently following the lead of Lilian's grandfather on how to be successful, immediately let his membership in the synagogue lapse.

Leslie was born about a year and a half later. When Leslie was just 5 years old, his father moved the family to Vienna in an attempt to give them the experience of the cultural and intellectual brilliance happening there. This is when Leslie learned to speak German. However, because Jews still needed the protection and support of other Jews, and the Steiners were not part of that group, they did not have a proper place in any society and the family was forced back to England in 1903 when Leslie was 10 years old.

[Leslie Howard, c. 1895]

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