Does anybody Know if it is true that Shirley Bassey was born in South Bank ( near Middlesbrough)' and moved to Tiger Bay when she was about 3 or 4 years old?
ormesbyannie Sun 20/04/08 14:14
To subscribe to this question you need to
sign in to the AnswerBank or register
if you are not already a member. All you need is a valid email address to register.
|
|
No, born 8th January late 1930's,, Tiger Bay, Cardiff
|
|
|
Question Author
That is what it says in all biographies' but in recent "Remember When" magazine locally an article states that she was actually born in South Bank' in North Street!
|
|
|
When I worked at The Dorchester(where Shirley always stayed) she told me she was born in Tiger Bay.
So I don't think you can get more authentic than that,unless you want to say she didn't know where she was born!
|
|
|
To follow on:~
This is from a Middlesborough Website.
Shirley Bassey's mother lived in North Street but moved to Tiger Bay, Cardiff when she was several months pregnant (robbing us of a talent that would have seen her daughter on this page).
This is the story that circulated in South Bank for years but simply was not true and Irene Blackburn (nee Walker) sent me an e-mail to put things right.
"Eliza Jane Start (Shirley's mam) moved to Wales long before Shirley was born. Shirley is the youngest of a family of eight, not seven as often stated. Doris Irene being the oldest and born in South Bank, followed by Ella, born in Middlesbrough. Then Eliza moved to Wales and had a further five children before Shirley. (Edith Grace, Iris, Henry, Eileen, Marina(deceased) and Shirley).
Regards,
Irene Blackburn nee Walker (South Bank born)
Niece of Shirley Bassey."
|
|
|
Question Author
Thanks for clearing that up.
|
|
|
Shirley's mother Eliza Jane was born in 1901 in New Marske in North Yorkshire ( Cleveland area) as Eliza Jane Start. The Start's had arrived from the Coningsby area of Lincolnshire a couple of generations before (part of a general influx from all around the UK to work in the ironstone mines) and one of them had married Hannah Lowe who was a relative of my mother's Lowe ancestors from nearby Skelton.
Eliza Jane married someone by the name of Metcalfe around 1920 (escapes me off the top of my head - Alfred, Arnold or Albert I think).
During the mid 1920s she began to see Henry Bassey a Nigerian sailor - whilst still married. This scandalized the village of new Marske - various family elders from the village got together and delivered an ultimatum to Eliza Jane to stop seeing him. She promptly ignored them and ran off with him. That led them first to South Bank as mentioned and then subsequently to Tiger Bay
It was some years later and after several children when they finally married in cardiff (1929 I think) At the time she gave her name as Metcalfe, declared she was single and gave her first husband's name as that of her father. As yet I have not found what happened to her first husband but presume the couple delayed marrying till it was legal for them to do so either through divorce or her first husband dying though the disrepancies on their marriage certificate would imply otherwise.
Shirley of course didnt come along till January 1937.
|
|
Problem Mortgage | Credit Card Consolidation | Debt Help | Free Advertising | Wester Union
