Keith Stewartson's father George was a master baker in
Billingham, County Durham, and it was in this town that Keith
was brought up. He was the youngest of his parents' three
children, having one older brother Roy and a sister who died
while Keith was too young to remember her. He did not get off to
the most promising start in terms of his education, for at the
age of eleven he failed the examinations at the end of his
primary schooling. Put on a reserve list for entry to Stockton
Secondary School, he was fortunate to be selected despite having
failed the examinations. At Stockton Secondary School he
performed brilliantly but World War II started before he had
completed his school education. His outstanding performance was
rewarded with the award of a State Scholarship and a Kitchener
Memorial Scholarship to Catharine's College, Cambridge, where
his brother Roy had taken an engineering degree. Soon after this
their family home suffered a direct hit during a bombing raid,
but they had been given sufficient war