Norval Marley

Norval Sinclair Marley (1885^[1] - 1955). The phenotypically^{[clarification needed]} white Jamaican became famous as the father of the Reggae musician Bob Marley.

Norval Marley was born in Jamaica to Albert Thomas Marley, an English man from Sussex, and Ellen Broomfield a bourgeois^{[clarification needed]} coloured Jamaican. He travelled to England from America where he joined the British Army in August 1916 at Liverpool and was enlisted in to the Labour Corps (Home Service); he had previously been employed as a Ferro-Concreter in Cuba.^[2][3] Marley family members, such as Norval's nephew Michael George Marley (son of Norval's brother Noel) stated that he was a descendant of Syrian Jews. In a 2003 interview, Michael George Marley revealed: "…I was told by my mother, grandmother and uncle, [that] the Marleys were Syrian Jews that migrated from the Middle East to England and then to Jamaica. About ten years ago I did research on the surname which also showed that to be true"^[4]

Later he was sent back to Jamaica where he met 18-year-old Cedella Malcolm (later Cedella Booker), who gave birth to their son Robert Nesta (Bob) Marley on February 6, 1945. No other children arose from this relationship. The couple split after a short time. Bob Marley, at his own admission, never really came to know his father.

Bob was about ten years old when Norval Marley died of a heart attack in 1955.^[5]

References

1. ^ Information about his age is contradictory several articles suggest that he was 50 when Bob was born and others that he was 60. His ages on his service record averages to c1885.
2. ^ Norval Marley's First World War army service record is on Ancestry.co.uk, source images 72099 - 72134 (The National Archives document reference WO 363/M 945, images 510 - 545)
3. ^ "Bob Marley's family on 'Welsh' roots". BBC Wales New Online. 2004-01-29. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/north_east/3431139.stm. Retrieved 19 April 2010. 
4. ^ "Interview with Heather Marley". bobmarleymagazine.com Website. http://www.bobmarleymagazine.com/2003/06/interview-with-heather-marley/. Retrieved 14 December 2010. 
5. ^ "The Life and Legacy of Bob Marley". BobMarley.com Official Website. http://web.bobmarley.com/story/?storypage=2. Retrieved 25 April 2009. 

1.^ Year of birth presumed on the basis of the information that he was 70 years old when he died in 1955

External links

• Article in The Times on Marley's British relatives

Persondata
Name	Marley, Norval
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Date of birth
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Date of death	1955
Place of death