Surprise twist in tale of Shrewsbury baby honoured by pop star visit
Baby Bensley named after Gerry of Gerry and the Pacemakers? Perhaps they were taking the mickey.
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Nevertheless it must have been a special moment as 1960s pop star Gerry Marsden and his band popped along to the maternity ward of a Shrewsbury hospital to welcome the little lad into the world.
We told the story a few weeks ago for the 59th birthday of that baby born on December 31, 1965 - and for the first time, as the tale was effectively "banned" by the Shropshire Star's editor of the day, for reasons we'll go into later.
It aroused the curiosity of Shropshire genealogist John Paul Jeffels, and thanks his research we can reveal that there was a surprise twist. Because despite Gerry going along to Copthorne hospital, and despite our photographer Bob Craig going along too to record it all, baby Bensley wasn't named after Gerry Marsden as was claimed. Nothing like it in fact.
Even going on the information provided at the time, it didn't quite hang together because Gerry Marsden's first name was Gerard, and the baby was supposedly going to be named Guy Jeremy Bensley.
