Early Life
Stanshall was born on 21 March 1943 at the Radcliffe Maternity Home in Shillingford, and christened Victor Anthony Stanshall. His mother Eileen lived with her young son while her husband, Victor (1909–1990) (a name he had adopted in preference to his own christened name of Vivian), served in the RAF. Stanshall described this period as the happiest time of his life.
When the war ended Vivian's father returned, and this proved to be a turning point in the young Vivian's life, bringing the happiness to an end. The family moved back to Walthamstow. Having found his life alone with his mother ideal, Stanshall's life took a serious downturn with the addition of his stern, pretentious father. This was followed by the further shock of the arrival of a new brother, Mark Stanshall, born in 1949. The brothers were six years apart, an age difference that apparently put an emotional distance in their relationship that was never resolved.
About this time, the Stanshall family moved to the Essex coastal town of Leigh-on-Sea. Stanshall managed to earn some money doing various odd jobs at the Kursaal fun fair in nearby Southend-on-Sea. These included working as a bingo caller and spending the winter painting the fairground attractions. To put aside enough money to get himself through art school (his father having refused to fund it), Stanshall spent a year in the merchant navy, where he made a very bad waiter, but a great teller of tall tales.
Stanshall eventually enrolled at the Central School of Art in London. Here, he joined several of his fellow students (including Rodney Slater, Roger Ruskin Spear and Neil Innes, who was studying art at Goldsmiths College) in forming a band. Innes said of their first meeting: "He was quite plump in those days. He had on Billy Bunter check trousers, a Victorian frock coat, violet pince-nez glasses, and carried a euphonium. He also wore large pink rubber ears." At around this time, Stanshall changed his first name to "Vivian" – the name his father had abandoned. It was not until 1977 that the documents came through that made his name change legal. Those who knew him from his student days continued to call him Vic.
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