shirley bassey

[ormesbyannie]

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?

[Postdog]

No, born 8th January late 1930's,, Tiger Bay, Cardiff

[ormesbyannie]

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!

[ormesbyannie]

Thanks for clearing that up.

[jiffy128]

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.

[Blackcat1974]

absolutely true, born in North Street South Bank

[jiffy128]

Further to my earlier answer and that of Irene here is a list of Eliza Jane Start's (Shirley Bassey's mother) children:

Doris I Start registered Middlesbrough 1st Qtr 1919

then marriage to Alfred Metcalfe in 1920

Florence M Metcalfe registered Middlesbrough 1st Qtr 1921
Ella M Metcalfe registered Middlesbrough 4th Qtr 1923

Iris J Metcalfe registered Cardiff 4th Qtr 1926

Edith G Bassey registered Cardiff 4th Qtr 1928

Marriage to Henry Bassey 1929

Verona M Bassey registered Cardiff 3rd Qtr 1930
(death registered Cardiff 4th Qtr 1930 aged 0.)

Twins Eileen and Henry Bassey registered Cardiff 1st Qtr 1932

Maria A Bassey registered Cardiff 1st Qtr 1935

Shirley Veronica Bassey registered Cardiff 1st qtr 1937

so clearly Eliza Jane had left South Bank long before Shirley came along. The only question is when did she take up with Henry and how many of her children did Alfred father.

I have never found any trace of Afred's death or of him re-marrying or of a divorce so it is possible Eliza Jane's marriage to Henry Bassey was bigamous.

[Titlark]

Shirley Bassey was born in the dock area of Cardiff and lived there for a few months. Father, a sailor (black) and mother white. Her mother then moved to a place called Portmamnor Road in an area called Splott. This is fact as my late sister in law was good friends with her mother.
She jumped on the Tiger Bay "bandwagon" following the hit film of the same name starring Hayley Mills and Horst Bucholz. Tiger Bay became the name for the whole of the dock area of Cardiff but was in fact only a small part of it
(and not the part where Shirley was born)