 Wilfrid Eggleston was born on 25 March 1901 in Lincoln to English parents who had moved from Spalding two years earlier , where his older sister Margaret had been born . His father was a former tax collector , his mother , a shop assistant and dressmaking apprentice ; they had married in Grantham come 1897 after meeting as choristers in the town 's Methodist chapel . Eggleston 's father , one of nine children from a Nottinghamshire farm , relocated the family regularly through his successful work at an insurance firm . His mother , similarly privileged , is said to have received an education from a " Victorian private school for young ladies " . The family purchased a grocer 's shop in Netherfield , Nottinghamshire , briefly resettling there until 1909 . During this short period , Wilfrid was educated at the newly established Chandos Street Secondary School , which amalgamated in 1973 to form Carlton le Willows School . 
