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Roald Dahl is born in Llandaff, Wales
Roald Dahl is born in Llandaff, near the Welsh capital of Cardiff, on 13th September 1916. Roald's parents, Harald Dahl and Sofie Magdalene Hesselberg, were both Norwegian and he was named after Norway's famous polar explorer, Roald Amundsen. At the time of his birth Roald had two older sisters, Astri (born 1912) and Alfhild (born 1914), as well as an older brother and sister from his father’s first marriage, Ellen (born 1903) and Louis (born 1906.) -
Death of Harald and Astri Dahl; birth of Roald Dahl's sister Asta
In February 1920 Roald Dahl's older sister Astri dies from an infection following a burst appendix, aged seven. Weeks later, Roald's father Harald dies of pneumonia at the age of 57. Roald describes his death in Boy, saying: "[Astri's] sudden death left him literally speechless for days afterwards. He was so overwhelmed with grief that when he himself went down with pneumonia a month or so afterwards, he did not much care whether he lived or died." -
Roald Dahl's family move to Llandaff, Wales, UK
Following the death of Astri and Harald and the birth of Asta, the Dahl family - Roald, his sisters, his mother Sofie and his older half-brother and half-sister - return to Llandaff, moving from Radyr to a smaller home called Cumberland Lodge. Soon after this, Roald begins kindergarten at Elmtree House nursery school in Llandaff together with his sisters Alfhild, Else and Asta. Their teachers were two sisters named Mrs Corfield and Miss Tucker. -
Roald Dahl attends the local Llandaff Cathedral School
From September 1923 until 1925, Roald attends the local Llandaff Cathedral School, an all-boys Preparatory School. During his time at Llandaff, Roald and his friends stage “the great and daring Mouse Plot" - involving a local sweet shop, its miserable and dirty owner Mrs Pratchett, and a dead mouse. Roald tells the story in detail in his 1984 memoir Boy.
