As a small boy I lived in Leicestershire, where there are fossils from 150 million years ago, and they were beautiful and mysterious. When you know how it got there, you know that yours are the first eyes to see it, and it's thrilling - I still feel the same.
-Attenborough

Born on 8 May, 1926 in London , England, David Frederick Attenborough was a middle child, the second of three sons born to Frederick Levi Attenborough and Mary Clegg. The elder brother was Richard Samuel Attenborough, who went on to become Lord Attenborough, a celebrated actor, filmmaker and elder statesman of the British film industry; the younger was John Michael Attenborough. The family later expanded to include two fostered Jewish refugee girls from Europe during World War II. Together the family lived in College House within the University of Leicester , where his father was the principal.

From an early age, Attenborough was fascinated by nature and was encouraged in his pursuit by those around him. Jacquetta Hawkes [Jacquetta Hawkes, born 5 August, 1910, died 18 March, 1996. ] , who was a British archaeologist and daughter of a Nobel Prize-winning scientist [Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins. ] admired his