Having been born in Stroud, Gloucestershire on 26 June 1914, Laurie Lee moved with his family to the village of Slad in 1917, the move with which "Cider with Rosie" opens. After fighting in the First World War with the Royal West Kent Regiment, Lee's father, Reginald Joseph Lee, did not return to the family. Lee and his brothers grew up loving the Lights, the family of their mother (Annie Emily Light), and intensely disliking their Lee relations. His sister, Frances Nemariah Joan Lee, died in 1915 aged three when Lawrence Lee was a toddler. He had older siblings from his father's first marriage: Dorothy, Harold, Reggie, Phyllis, and Marjorie, and two brothers from his parent's marriage, Jack and Tony. His brother Jack Lee (born 1913) was to become a film director.