User:Olive Middlemarch/sandbox

William John Wainwright was born in Birmingham, England, in 1855. His artistic talent might have been inherited from his grandfather, John Wainwright, a medallist to the Royal Mint, London and Dublin, and to the Government of the United States of America. His father, Joseph Marsh Wainwright, was ruined when the family fortune disappeared with the crash of the private bank, Attwood and Spooner, in 1865. Another blow followed the consecutive year: his father died at only thirty-seven years of age. Wainwright's mother was left with William and his brother to bring up on her own with little money. She opened a café and a few years later William was able to help by offering customers a game of cards, dominoes or cribbage. Shortly after his father's death, William and his mother became Roman Catholics. His conversion would have an enormous effect on every aspect of his life including his artistic career. As a boy Wainwright had attended Graham Street Chapel with his parents and had gone to a branch school of King Edward VI, New Street.