Victor Canning was born in 1911 in Plymouth, England. He was the eldest child in his family and his father worked as a taxi driver. During World War I, Victor and his sisters lived with his uncle in Calstock while his father served as an ambulance driver in France. After the war, the family returned to Plymouth and later moved to Oxford in the 1920s where Victor attended school and showed academic promise, though ultimately he had to start working instead of attending university due to his family's financial circumstances.