November 2 is an important day in the life of Sir Cliff Richard, one of the greatest singers of our times. It was on this day in the year 1940 that this music legend was baptized in the Doon valley’s St.Thomas Church on Rajpur Road,the heart of the city. The Doon valley thus has a strong connection with the famous singer besides having figured in the creative life of the Beatles, who wrote and sang a song in praise of the valley when they stayed at Mahesh Yogi’s ashram in Rishikesh in the late 1960s.
The baptism records of the St. Thomas Church in Dehra Dun indicate that Cliff Richard was born on October 14,1940 and baptized as Harry Roger, son of Rodger Oscar Webb and Dorothy Mary Webb, on November 2,1940.
This is also mentioned in "Cliffennium", Richard's biography brought out at the beginning of the millennium.
The church was built in 1840 and is among the oldest garrison churches in the region. It used to be a magnificent building, an imposing example of Gothic architecture with evocative stained glass windows, as it was the hub of the burgeoning Christian community in Dehra Dun and Mussoorie. The Church fell on bad days after independence and was almost in ruins. It was difficult to spot it amid the host of shops and stalls located just outside its campus. The church falls under the Church of North India (Diocese of Agra). However, it now has been renovated.
Few would know that Sir Cliff Richard was born in lucknow. Even fewer would be aware that he was baptized in the Doon valley where he was brought as a newborn from lucknow.
Responding to an e-mail message some years ago from lokesh Ohri, who is part of an organization that advocates conservation of heritage, Sir Cliff had expressed his concern over the condition of the church where he was baptised. Writing through his agent, he said, “It would be ideal for the community to protect this monument. Though I have no personal recollection of the church, the monument appears to be worth conserving”.
In 1948, following India’s independence, the Webbs moved to Britian. They moved from comparative wealth in India where they had servants and lived in a company supplied flat at Howrah near Calcutta, to the house of Harry's grandmother in Carshalton in Surrey.
Sir Cliff Richard has given to the world of music, great hits like ‘Summer Vine’ and ‘Evergreen Tree’. He has ruled over the popular music scene for nearly six decades, and still draws appreciative crowds to his concerts. He began his career as a rock 'n' roll performer in 1957.It was in 1958 that he took on the name Cliff Richard. During 1966, he almost retired after converting to fundamentalist Christianity, but elected to use his singing career as a positive expression of his faith. The sparkling ‘In The Country’ and gorgeously evocative ‘The Day I Met Marie’ displayed the old strengths to the full. He was knighted for his services to popular music in 1995.
This historic church in the Doon valley also houses memories of The Great Arc Expedition, or the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India, that was led by Col William lambton two centuries ago, and later accomplished by Sir George Everest. A memorial plaque in St. Thomas Church immortalizes the memory of George Henry Walter Shelverton, a deputy superintendent in the Survey, who died near Madras in 1871 due to a Malarious fever. The Great Indian Arc of the Meridian, was the greatest human endeavour attempted at the time. One of the unsettled scientific questions in the late 18th century was the exact nature of the shape of the earth.The Great Arc is indeed a dramatic tale of how India was mapped and Everest was named, how the dedicated team of surveyors undertook this 40-year long high-risk journey, braving bouts of malarial fevers, dysentery, floods and inhospitable weather, through hills, jungles and swamps.
The St.Paul’s Church in landour in Mussoorie was renovated a few years ago while St. Peter’s, the oldest church in Mussoorie(atop the highest hill in landour), was renovated and reopened in 2009.
Before that, Christ Church on The Mall Road in Mussoorie was also restored.
