Marley, Bob
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Comment by David Horry on October 19th, 2014 at 6:49 am
Your information on Bob Marley’s father, Norval, is somewhat wayward!
He was born in 1885 (not 1895)and died sometime after February 1956 as he appeared in court in Kingston on a bigamy charge (Daily Gleaner)- so not 1955. He was therefore around 70 when he died and not 60.
In the 1920s he was an Army Captain in Nigeria at some point. In 1932 sold the 350 acre coffee plantation at Lancaster (Rose Hill), Portland when world coffee prices dipped dramatically. He was probably a cattle foreman in Cuba for a time after that. He was in Jamaica during WWII when he fathered Bob Marley at Nine Miles. He would send Cedella money to pay for the kid via the post office at Cedar Valley (known as Prickley Pole as there was another Cedar Valley in St. Thomas.) He may well have worked for the British Security Services from about 1939 until his retirement around 1950. There is but one existing photo of him on a horse in Cuba. Other photos purporting to be him are of J. R. Tolkein – to whom he bears a close resemblance.
Comment by Jennifer Tanabe on October 20th, 2014 at 5:18 pm
Thank you, David, for your feedback. It does appear that the information on Norval Marley is somewhat confused. The article will be revised. Thank you again for taking the time to help make NWE a valuable information resource.
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