Childhood and medical career

Mahathir was born at his parents' home in a poor neighbourhood of Alor Setar, the capital of

the state of Kedah, British Malaya, on 10 July 1925.[3] Mahathir's birth certificate gives his

date of birth as 20 December. He was actually born on 10 July; his biographer Barry Wain

explains that 20 December was an "arbitrary" date. Mahathir's father is a Malay with a

possible distant Indian ancestry while his mother Wan Tempawan, was from Kedah,

of Malay descent respectively.[4][5] An aspect of Mahathir's birth set him apart: he was not

born into the aristocracy or a prominent religious or political family.[6][N 1] Mahathir's

father was a school principal whose low socio-economic status meant his daughters were

unable to enroll in secondary school, while Wan Tempawan had only a distant relationship to

Kedah's royalty. Both parents had been married previously; Mahathir had six half-siblings

and two full-siblings.[7] Mahathir was a hard-working student. Discipline imposed by his

father motivated him to study, and he showed little interest in sports. He won a position in

a selective English medium secondary school, having become fluent in English well ahead of

his primary school peers.[10] With schools closed during the Japanese occupation of

Malaya during World War II, he went into business, first selling coffee and later pisang

goreng (banana fritters) and other snacks.[3] After the war, he graduated from secondary

school with high marks and enrolled to study medicine at the King Edward VII College of

Medicine in Singapore (now part of National University of Singapore).[11] There he met his

future wife, Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, a fellow medical student. After he graduated,

Mahathir worked as a doctor in government service before marrying in 1956. He returned to

Alor Setar the following year to set up his own practice. The success of his practice, as the

only Malay doctor in the town, allowed him to build a large house, invest in various

businesses and, pointedly, employ a chauffeur to drive his Pontiac Catalina.[12][13] He and

Siti Hasmah had their first child, Marina, in 1957, before conceiving three others and

adopting three more over the following 28 years.[14]