David Miliband

Born in London, Miliband is the elder son of immigrant parents, Belgian-born Marxist sociologist Ralph Miliband and Polish-born Marion Kozak, both from Polish Jewish families. The latter was a teacher before she became a homemaker. He was given the middle name of "Wright" after the American sociologist C. Wright Mills, a friend of his father. He has said "I am the child of Jewish immigrants and that is a very important part of my identity." Both his Polish Jewish paternal grandparents lived in the Jewish quarter of Warsaw. His paternal grandfather, Samuel, a trained leather worker, served in the Red Army in the Polish–Soviet War of 1919–1921 before moving to Belgium. His paternal grandmother, Renia (later known as Renée), also moved to Belgium, where she first met Sam, and the couple married in 1923. The German invasion of Belgium in May 1940 split the Miliband family in half: Ralph and father Samuel fled to England, while Ralph's mother Renée and baby sister Nan stayed behind for the duration of the war. They were not reunited until 1950. His mother, a human rights campaigner and early CND member, survived the Holocaust thanks to being protected by Catholic Poles but her father, David's maternal grandfather did not. During his visit to Poland in June 2009, Miliband went to his family tomb in the Jewish Cemetery in Warsaw. He said of Poland, "My mother was born here, her life was saved by those who risked theirs sheltering her from Nazi oppression", and that he is "one of the million Britons who have Polish blood".

Miliband was educated at Primrose Hill Primary School, in Camden, and Newlaithes Primary School, in Leeds. In September 1976, he passed the entrance examination to the newly independent, fee-paying Bradford Grammar School and from 1978 to 1983, attended Haverstock Comprehensive School in North London. He obtained four A-levels (grades BBBD), and won admission to the University of Oxford. He was an undergraduate student at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and obtained a first-class honours degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE). From 1988 to 1989, he received a master's degree in Political Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a Kennedy Scholar.

Miliband married Louise Shackelton, a professional violinist formerly with the London Symphony Orchestra, in 1998. Shackelton and Miliband have adopted two newborn sons from the United States, the first in December 2004 and the second in October 2007, and currently live in New York City's Upper West Side. In an interview with CNN in 2009, Miliband stated that he grew up in a secular setting and describes himself as an atheist with a "huge respect" for people of faith.

Miliband was portrayed by Henry Lloyd-Hughes in the docu-drama Miliband of Brothers, with Ed Miliband being portrayed by Lloyd Hughes' brother Ben Lloyd-Hughes.

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