1. Rodger Webb marries Dorothy Dazely
26 April, 1939
His relatives came to India from as part of the taskforce needed to build a system of railways that would transform the country, and
hers left the mother country as soldiers.
In 1936 Dorothy first met the man who was to become her husband when Rodger Webb came to visit his sister who lived in the apartment above her family's in the town of Asansol. He was thirty-one and she was sixteen, but despite this
significant age difference, and the fact Rodger was based in the far away town of Howrah, they fell in love and for three years stayed in contract mostly through
letters.
On 26 April 1939 Rodger and Dorothy were married at St Paul's Church, Asansol. They soon moved north-west to Dehra Dun where they were soon to start a family.
2. Harry Rodger Webb is born
14 October, 1940
On Monday 14th October 1940, Dorothy Webb gave birth to a nine pound boy who would eventually go on to be described as
the boy who's going to rock the world.
Harry Rodger Webb was born in The King's English Hospital in Lucknow due to the lack of major hospitals in Dehra Dun, and was due to be christened 'Rodger Harry' upon his return to the town. However, Cliff's godmother voiced her preference for 'Harry Rodger' at the actual Christening, which took place at St Thomas' Church, and that was the name he was very hastily christened with.
3. Harry starts school
September, 1946The boy who would eventually go on to become Cliff Richard started school at St Thomas' Church School in Church Road, Howrah.
One of his family servants, Habib, used to bring his lunch every day to the school, which was laid out among stands of
banana trees. Harry's best friend was a boy named Lal who spoke no English, and thus all of their conversations were in Hindi which he was being taught at school after some
preliminary lessons from his father.
4. The Webb's leave for England
24 August, 1948
After World War II ended, life in India, which had been promised home rule by Britain for its wartime efforts, began to change forever.
When independence became a genuine possibility, old religious feuds between Hindus and Moslems began to rise to the surface, and violence began to erupt on the streets around 1946. English nationals living in India were also becoming the target of violence, and Harry's mother Dorothy was being hassled while shopping with Indians shouting 'Go back to England white woman.' A frightened young Harry would scream back 'Leave her alone. She's my mummy.'
During a period of intense rioting, a nearby family of Moslems were killed, with the only survivor a young boy who they could see hiding in his garden. They kept him alive by dropping food parcels from their window
every night until Dorothy's uncle, a Calcutta Policeman, could be called. This experience shook the young family tremendously, and when the police arrived to collect the boy with flesh visibly hanging off the tracks of the car they decided they had to leave.
Initially Rodger wanted to take his family to Australia, but Dorothy convinced him that they should move to England where her mother and other relatives lived. So on Saturday 21 of August they boarded a train to Bombay where, three days later, they boarded a P&O passenger liner called the
Ranchi.
At 6am on Monday 13 September, the Ranchi arrived at Tilbey Docks in the UK. After a charmed existence in India, the Webbs would now struggle to afford even the basics and having to sleep on mattresses at the houses of various relatives. They would have to wait until April 1951 before they were awarded a council house of their own in the working class town of Cheshunt.
5. Harry Webb starts Secondary School
September, 1952
After just failing the eleven-plus exam, Harry was enrolled in the newly built Cheshunt County Secondary School which was taking in 800 pupils.
Cliff soon developed a keen interest in sports, playing soccer, rugby, sprinting, and even managing to break the over-13s javelin record. He also began to develop an interest in drama through a teacher who was to remain a close friend throughout his life, Jay Norris.
6. Acting debut
February, 1954
Perhaps a humble start to a career which would see him break theatre and movie box office records, Cliff had his acting debut Sheila Buckley's
The Price of Perfection, which he followed up in October in The Ugly Duckling by A.A. Milne.
It was for the school's 1955 Christmas play that Jay Norris finally convinced Cliff to sing in public. According to Jay, he told her that he wanted the part of Ratty but couldn't sing, to which she responded, 'It's actually quite simple. If you can't sing you can't play Ratty.' He did go on to play Ratty and, according to Jay, 'Sang it beautifully.'
7. Harry first hears Elvis
May, 1956
One Saturday in May 1956, Harry was walking with some friends in Waltham Cross when he heard a sound that would change his life forever.
That noise was Elvis Presley singing Heartbreak Hotel blaring from the radio of a parked Citroen which quickly zoomed off, leaving the teenagers fascinated by a sound unlike any they'd heard before.
Cliff later said 'The first time I heard Elvis' voice I thought of it as a sound or an instrument. I had never heard anyone sing like that before...When I heard Elvis the next step for me was to try to do it.'
Harry and his friends all went home and tuned into Radio Luxembourg and the American Forces Network
until they eventually found out that the man who would eventually turn Harry
Webb into Cliff Richard was Elvis Presley.
8. First rock'n'roll performance as part of 'The Quintones'
14 July, 1956
After being inspired by the music of Elvis, Harry and school friends Betty Clarke, Freda Johnson, John Vince and Beryl Molineux formed an informal singing group which started off singing along to records at the Holy Trinity Youth Club's Saturday night dances.
While the group didn't have any serious intentions at the time, they were asked to appear at the Anglo-French dance which was a fundraiser for the Holy Trinity School on Bastille Day, 1956. They quickly gave themselves the name 'The Quintones' and started practising at a friend's house.
On the night, 250 people witnessed the singing debut of a man that would go on to have more hit singles than any other singer in history. The brief performance included the song that had started his interest in rock'n'roll just months earlier,
Heartbreak Hotel, and earned him his first picture in the paper.
9. First girlfriend
1956
The Quintones brought young Harry closer to a girl he'd known since junior school, Betty Clarke. At age fifteen she would become Harry's first girlfriend.
It wouldn't be until 1958 that Harry would find his first girlfriend, albeit under a different name, in Janice Berry who he'd also come to know at Cheshunt County Secondary School.
10. Harry Webb's first review
December, 1956
In yet another dramatic role at Cheshunt Secondary School, Harry earned his first critical review which was published in the Cheshunt
Weekly Telegraph.
The review stated, 'Harry Webb acted well as Bob Cratchet, but was rather let down by the make-up team and, hard as he worked, he could not dispel the impression that he was a teenager and not a harassed father.'
