A. Edward "Eddie" Chamberlain

Name: A. Edward "Eddie" Chamberlain

Home: London, England

Education: Private Secondary School, 2 years at Oxford studying Archaeology (did not finish).

Second son of a shrewd and monied international banking executive and a beautiful (and one time wild) Irish rose, Eddie has fallen out of favor with his family. His older - if less talented - brother (Philip) dutifully followed his father's footsteps into the banking industry. Eddie, already studying archeology against his father (Philip Sr.), but with the support of his mother (Virginia, Philip's second wife), was engaged to the French daughter (Colette) of his father's business partner (Henri Michaud), when the Great War began. Despite the promise of a relatively safe position in the Quartermaster General's office bought with his father's influence, Eddie refused to enlist in the Royal Army and thereby brought (perceived) dishonor to his father and future father-in-law. Eddie's university funds were discontinued and his wedding canceled. Adding insult to injury, Eddie's younger brother (William) secretly enlisted though he was not old enough to do so and was later killed at Verdun. Virginia's reaction to the loss of her second child (Philip was born of Philip Sr.'s first wife) was to shut herself off from the rest of the world, including Eddie.

Eddie spent much of his youth up through his university years getting into, and then talking himself out of, trouble. Studies came naturally, and he spent a lot of free time going places and doing things a respectable young man has no business doing: scamming other boys out of their lunch money and allowances, shooting dice, sneaking into the girls' private academy, talking a couple professor's wives out of their clothes, making friends with the young women at a local house of ill repute... simply never letting his background or education or the expectations of his father impede him from getting the most out of life. When everything came crashing down after William's death, Eddie sunk into despair, spending more and more of his time getting into trouble and hanging out with folks from the seedier side of the tracks. A few brushes with the law and a near escape only won with the quickness of his tongue, shook him out of his funk and he began taking stock of his life, separating friends from ne'er-do-wells. This turned out to be less a move back towards respectablity and more a move towards being a smarter, better, con artist, surrouding himself with people he could trust. It was at this time that Rupert Murdoch, his father's accountant, offered to help fascilitate a move to the United States where more legitimate (and for Eddie, more illigitimate) opportunities were available.