Ransome was the son of Cyril Ransome (1851-1897) and his wife Edith ne Boulton (1862-1944). Arthur was the eldest of four children: he had two sisters Cecily and Joyce, and a brother Geoffrey who was killed in the First World War in 1918. Ransome was born in Leeds; the house at 6 Ash Grove, in the Hyde Park area and has a blue plaque beside the door commemorating his birthplace. Ransome's father was professor of history at Yorkshire College, Leeds (now the University of Leeds). The family regularly holidayed at Nibthwaite in the Lake District, and he was carried up to the top of Coniston Old Man as an infant. His father's premature death in 1897 had a lasting effect on him. His mother Edith did not want him to abandon his studies for writing, but was later supportive of his books. She urged him to publish The Picts and the Martyrs in 1943, although his second wife Evgenia hated it; Genia was often discouraging about his books while he was writing them.