His mother was an English lady called Sophia, and his father was a French engineer called Marc.
Marc and Sophia met in France in 1793 and fell in Love. After many adventures, they settled in London, where they got married and had three children. Isambard was the youngest, and he had a happy childhood. He played with his friends, swam in the river and went for Long walks in the park with his mother.
But Isambard’s favourite thing was going to the dockyard where his father worked! Marc was good at maths, drawing and inventing things. He had created clever machines for making parts of ships, and the Royal Navy paid him to build his devices for them.
Marc would take little Isambard on boat trips down the River Thames…
