The eldest son of William Harold Pearsall, (1891–1964), F.R.S., and professor of freshwater biology at Sheffield University and Manchester University, and his wife Marjorie Williamson, a lecturer in botany, was born at Leeds, while his parents were both lecturers at the University of Leeds.
•
Completing his degree, he began graduate work in naval history under Professor Gerald S. Graham at King's College London, but did not complete his doctorate.
A. W. H. Pearsall, "Sir William George Fairfax" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004)