Norval Marley
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Norval Sinclair Marley (b. 1895; d. May 20, 1955, Kingston, Jamaica) was the white English father of the famous reggae musician Bob Marley. Norval Marley was of Jamaican and British political nationality and of ethnic English descent. Rumours persist that he was a descendant from Syrian Jews who emigrated to England.
Marley was born in Jamaica to an English family which originated from Sussex. He was a respected Marine officer and captain, and also a plantation overseer on land he owned. He was married to Bob Marley's mother, Cedella Booker. Norval provided financial support for his wife and child, but he seldom saw his son as he was away on trips often. Norval died of a heart attack in 1955, age 60, when Bob Marley was just 10 years old.
After the death of his father in 1955, Bob Marley was raised by his mother, Cedella Marley, who moved them to Kingston's Trenchtown slum.
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Rumours of Norval Marley's association with Wales has been discredited; he only lived in an English border county for a brief part of his life, and he had no Welsh relations.
