Hawking was born on 8 January 1942 in Oxford, England, to Frank and Isobel Hawking. His mother was Scottish. Despite their families' financial constraints, both parents attended the University of Oxford, where Frank studied medicine and Isobel, Philosophy, Politics and Economics. The two met shortly after the beginning of the Second World War at a medical research institute where she was working as a secretary and he as a medical researcher. They lived in Highgate, but as London was being bombed in those years, Isobel went to Oxford to give birth in greater safety.Hawking has two younger sisters, Philippa and Mary, and an adopted brother, Edward.