Bigamy, the Raj and the scandal buried in Sir Cliff Richard's past By Alison Boshoff UPDATED: 08:39 GMT, 1 November 2011
Sir Cliff Richard is famous for many things apart from his singing -- his almost preternatural youthfulness, his Christian faith and, of course, his failure ever to marry. So it was rather a surprise when, in a recent interview with BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, the 71-year-old bachelor boy became involved in a discussion about bigamy. Sir Cliff announced -- quite out of the blue -- that his grandfather was a bigamist. Serenading his mother in 1960: Sir Cliff said he had never met any of his grandfather's other family after he revealed that his grandmother assumed her husband was killed in the war while he set up a new home in Coventry 'His wife, my mother's mother, thought he was killed in the war. It turns out that he left her and let everyone assume he was dead, and set up a new home in Coventry.' He added that he had never met any of this other family, only saying coyly: 'It's in my book.' But careful examination of Sir Cliff's substantial 2008 tome My Life, My Way reveals no information at all about a bigamist grandfather, or the family he went on to have. Instead, he fills 308 pages with a long and detailed celebration of his professional life and good works, but little about his personal and family life -- and certainly no bigamous skeletons. In fact, Sir Cliff has never before acknowledged such an intriguing element in his background -- which is probably why, as I discovered this week, many members of his 'other' family have died with no idea they were related to him. Even those still alive, and who know the truth, have never met him, although research showed he has numerous 'half-cousins' living in Britain, should he ever wish to find them. Young ones: Sir Cliff's grandad William, aged 44. Sir Cliff has never before acknowledged an intriguing element in his background -- which is probably why many members of his 'other' family have died with no idea they were related to him There are some other surprises in Cliff's family tree, too. For although he briskly told Woman's Hour that his mother was 'not Anglo-Indian' -- as has been suggested in the past -- and that he had instead an 'Anglo-Indian stepfather', it turns out that he does indeed have Anglo-Indian blood. The connection comes through his great-great grandmother, Emeline Josephine Rebeiro, the daughter of an Indian man from Goa, Vitriaus Rebeiro. One of Cliff's long-established full cousins from his mother's side of the family, Garth Gregory, tells me: 'My mother was Cliff's aunt. They were sisters -- my mother Olive and his mum Dorothy. And it is well known in the family that there was Indian blood.' Indeed, pictures of Cliff's mother Dorothy reveal a raving beauty in the mould of the late Anglo-Indian actress, Merle Oberon. So what is the truth about Sir Cliff's fractured family? He was born Harry Rodger Webb in Howrah, outside Calcutta, in 1940. His father, Rodger Webb, was a manager for a catering company and his mother, Dorothy Dazely, was a British woman who had been born in India to a military family. They came to England in 1948, joining thousands of British descent who left when India gained its independence. The family were 'destitute' at first; Rodger Webb had only £5 in his pocket. Cliff and his sisters, Donna, Jacqui and Joan, lived in a single room in Hertfordshire while their father sought work. 'Ours was the kind of hardship that either draws people more closely together, or splits them apart completely,' Cliff said. Cliff's Aunt Olive also emigrated from India and lived in Manchester and then in Essex. Olive's son, Cliff's cousin Garth, tells me that he saw the singer a few times in the early days, and remembers the star buying him a bicycle for Christmas, but then they lost touch. 'He is the star of the family, isn't he?' says Garth. 'I don't think my children have even met him. He's not in this country all that much -- I don't think he's interested in his wider family.' Perhaps he should be, though, for it's quite a family tree. The key figure in the story is Cliff's maternal grandfather, William Edward Dazely. He was born in 1896 in Bombay to Edward Dazely, a driver with the 27th Battery Field Royal Artillery, and his wife, Daisy. Anglo-Indian blood: his great-great grandmother, Emeline Josephine Rebeiro, was the daughter of an Indian man from Goa, Vitriaus Rebeiro William, a serviceman, married a railway guard's daughter, Dorothy, in 1919 in Madras. There were two daughters: Cliff's mother, Dorothy, and her younger sister, Olive. At some point in the 1920s, William went to serve with the British Indian Army in its campaign against Afghan forces -- and was never seen again by his family. But ten years after that first marriage, William married again, this time in Karachi. He stated that he was a widower -- a downright lie -- and serving as a sergeant in the police. His bride was one Maizie Sherard. But there had been no annulment or divorce to end his first marriage. Not only did William bigamously re-marry, so, too, did Cliff's grandmother -- albeit probably unintentionally. She went on to have a further seven children with her second husband, Richard Dickson, a chief inspector with the East Indian Railway. Cousin Garth explains: 'William Dazely went missing in action and was presumed dead -- that is what the family were told. 'After being missing for seven years, the marriage can be annulled and perhaps Dorothy believed this happens automatically. The problem is that there is no paperwork to show that the annulment ever took place, so there seem to be bigamous marriages for them both. 'He is probably a lovely, lovely person, but I have never been much of a fan -- I've always preferred Elvis.' - Joan Dazely, the widow of Cliff's Uncle Jim 'It may be that William felt he was a free agent after seven years of separation -- you have to remember that this was colonial India. And obviously Dorothy thought she was widowed.' What's beyond dispute is that William Dazely and his bigamous bride Maizie moved to Birmingham. He worked for car giant Rover and Maizie bore him five sons, who are all Cliff's uncles -- though they have never met him. Only one is still alive -- 91-year-old William, who lives in Birmingham. His brothers, Derrick, Jim and Peter, have all died, and a further brother, Collin, moved to Canada as a young man, and is also now believed to be dead. It seems certain that Cliff's grandfather William Dazely, who died of coronary thrombosis in 1969, never suspected that the star -- by then famous for a decade -- was his long-lost grandson. Not only that, it seems that Cliff's uncles were in the dark, too. The family secret first surfaced in a 1993 biography of Cliff by music journalist Steve Turner, who discovered the bigamous marriage. According to family members, he didn't manage to trace all five brothers or tell the entire story -- which is why the news took years to spread to some of Cliff's uncles. Joan Dazely, the widow of Cliff's Uncle Jim, says: 'We didn't know anything about Jim's relations to Cliff Richard until after Jim died in 1999. Jim simply had no idea he had such a famous nephew.' Young ones: Cliff Richard aged 15 months, and ( right) giving his sister Donella, away at her wedding, August 1961 It was only after she was able to make contact with Derrick's widow that Joan, 70, found out about the link to Cliff. She says: 'I was shocked and surprised. Many people would find having a relation like that exciting, but to us it was about what Jim's dad William had done to his poor first wife. 'It was the scandal of the family. We couldn't be happy about it knowing this woman was abandoned. 'I'm sure if you asked Cliff if he would like to meet us he would probably say "not really" and I feel the same. He is probably a lovely, lovely person, but I have never been much of a fan -- I've always preferred Elvis.' But she adds: 'Jim and Cliff were very much alike. They had similar features. You can tell they are family.' The widow of Cliff's youngest uncle, Peter, who died in 2006, says that towards the end of his life he did know that he was related to Cliff, but had never taken it further. Peter's widow, Sheryl, who lives in Neath, South Wales, says: 'Peter told me that he found out his father was married previously and had two daughters -- one was Cliff Richard's mother. It is sad they never met, but Sir Cliff is a celebrity and probably busy with that side of his life.' Sheryl, 46, who has four children, said: 'Peter would say that his father William was very strict, but he didn't want to talk about his childhood much.' Cliff's cousin Garth says he regrets that he found out about Cliff's 'other' family too late to tell his mother, Olive, who died in 1995. Cliff's mother Dorothy, too -- who died in 2007, a decade after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's -- was also apparently never aware of the rather tangled love stories of her parents. Given what had gone before, then, it is fair to say that Sir Cliff's long-standing aversion to matrimony is not inherited. -- Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2055932/Bigamy-Raj-scandal-buried-Cliffs-past.html#ixzz2rOsppOsa Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook Thanks to Menin Rodrigues of Karachi, whose Facebook page pointed me to this link https://www.facebook.com/menin.rodrigues -- FN Phone +91-832-2409490 Mobile +91-9822122436 Blog: http://goabooks.wordpress.com