The Times Magazine 27involved in a horrendous accident or grown
up in families riven by addiction, poverty and
mental illness. Some have fled a civil war,
been abused or received little education.
When we first noticed the pattern, we
thought it was a coincidence. Then, as the
cases accumulated, we began to realise that
a traumatic start can sometimes provide a
catalyst for the talented, giving them an extra
shot of self-reliance and ambition. Far from
holding these high-flyers back, the struggle
to deal with disadvantage has driven them on
to reach extraordinary heights.
They have a resilience and a need to prove
themselves that those with more contented
childhoods may not share. They come to
believe they can make it on their own and
they learn to trust their instincts.
Most of our interviewees who have suffered
in their early years share a powerful sense
of purpose and a determination to triumph
against the odds. While happy, stable
childhoods typically lead to happy stable
jobs and careers and family lives, disruption
can be the trigger for the astonishing
creativity and innovation that catapults
some exceptional people to the very top and
prevents them compromising their ambition
because they have more to prove.
We set out to explore the phenomenon
in a Times Radio podcast, Past Imperfect. At
the end of every interview, we asked our
guests what they wished they had known
when they were young at the time of their
trauma or tragedy. Often they would reply
that they wished they had realised that
everything would work out, that they would
not only survive but thrive and that the pain
they had experienced as a child would make
them stronger.
We discovered that of the 55 British prime
ministers going back to 1721, 25 lost either one
or both of their parents as a child. A further
three lost a sibling, eight were affected
by serious mental or physical illness and
two suffered a dramatic change in family
circumstance in their early years. According
to our analysis, 69 per cent of these political
leaders suffered a serious trauma in childhood.
In fact, all three main party leaders
currently in the House of Commons endured
adversity in their early years. Boris Johnson’s
mother, Charlotte Wahl, who died last year,
was convinced that his childhood “desire to be
world king” was prompted by a wish to make
himself “unhurtable, invincible and somehow
safe” from the pain of her disappearance for
eight months when he was ten after she was
admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Sir KeirStarmer’s mother battled with Still’s disease,
an incurable condition that meant she could
not speak for many years and ended up
having a leg amputated. Ed Davey lost his
father when he was four, and then when he
was 12 his mother became terminally ill and
he was her carer for three years until she died.
Sir Tony Blair – whose father had a stroke
when Blair was ten, and who then lost his
mother in his twenties – believes it is no
coincidence that so many senior politicians
have overcome trauma in their early lives.
“Having met a large number of very successful
people in different walks of life I think there’s
usually a spur somewhere,” he told us. “Spurs
are painful, but out of that comes an intensity
of ambition, a desire to achieve. That’s my
general experience of the people who are
successful. Not always but usually there’s
been something in their background or their
childhood or circumstances that have dug into
them and made them break into a gallop.”
Sir John Major, whose father lost his
business when he was 12, made a similar point
to us about his own truncated childhood. “The
first essential for success is luck, but it isn’t just
luck,” he told us. “It is lucky if you win some
money on the lottery, but if you move from
one station in society to a different one there
is often something more. Your background
matters. There are things from your past that
remain with you and give you an impetus.”
The trend is repeated in business, the arts,
science and sport. According to one study,‘I had a sense that life
is short and you have
to pack it in. I learnt to
adapt quickly’
Mary PORTAS