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I am looking for any information on larry gretton his birth name date of birth year he died . I know he sang with Joe loss and rose brannon any information I would be very grateful.

can you at least give us roughly some dates ...............

Google his name if necessary!!

In fact, you might be able to find the information for yourself by using Google ......... that's what we would be doing to help you!

there are HUNDREDS of references to him.

It took 0.63 seconds for Google o find them :-D

Well at least you didn't start doing the work yourself, Sylvia!

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards/board/ancestors/thread/1341160

After reading that, I gave it a shot, and there is indeed just nothing about his name, birth, death, etc. One site does refer to him as a Leicester singer, and the surname does seem to be centred around there.

Margaret, since you have been wanting this info for some time now, can you explain anything you do know / connection you have with him / why you are looking for the information? It could possibly lead to something, to know that.

Well, he was still apparently singing in 1994 according to The Stage 13 October 1994

An announcement said that there was to be a gala charity concert at The Barbican on October 30 to pay tribute to "legendary band leader JOE LOSS". Proceeds to go to the Joe Loss Research Fellowship in Jewish Music at City University. Joe Loss died in 1990.

But I got curious ...


1939 register

Blanche J Gretton 1881 Braintree and Bocking U.D. Essex
Thomas Gretton 1870 Braintree and Bocking U.D. Essex
? Lawrence H Gretton 1914 Braintree and Bocking U.D. Essex
Maurice K Bretton 1922 Braintree and Bocking U.D. Essex

Marriages Dec 1897
Gretton Thomas Edmonton 3a 493
ROSSITER Blanche Florence Edmonton 3a 493

There's no birth record for either Lawrence or Maurice.

... well yes there are, both registered as Bretton.

Marriages Jun 1905
BRETTON Thomas Dunmow 4a 1379
Clapson Blanche Jane Dunmow 4a 1379

so heh, the 1939 Gretton household was a red herring ... it's realy Bretton.

Leaving me back where I started.

I wondered whether Larry, certainly a nickname, was for an odd name that didn't fit with show biz ... like Ambrose ...

Births Jun 1925
Gretton Ambrose A C mother Reville Worksop 7b 41

After that, there's no record of him - 1939, marriage, or death (including WWII) ... and there is no Ambrose-Reville marriage or other births with those names.

No wait, the marriage is Albert Gretton to Belinda Revill, and there are 3 more births. (All 4 births have second middle initial C.)

1939:

Belinda F Gretton 1905
4 more people who are officially closed

you never know ...


Maybe Gretton wasn't Larry's name at all, or was a stepfather's name ...

Maybe Elvis Costello knows!

Margaret, do you know, or have you ever tried to contact, the people who have him in their trees here?

Larry Gretton 1930 Nottingham Nottinghamshire
Larry Gretton 1921 Leicester Leicestershire
Larry Gretton 1918 Leicester Leicestershire

Not a lot of agreement there ...

Up to 2002, 192.com shows a Laurence Gretton living with spouse in Kentish Town.

But no ... I can't identify him in BMDs, but he seems to have been alive and writing letters to the editor in 2008.

Not Ambrose- he went to Australia in 1950, listed as a motor mechanic.

rats, I tried passenger records but not hard enough ... I just kinda liked 'Ambrose' :-)

Then there's a Harry Lawson Gretton born in Leicester in 1921, died in July 2001 ... 3 kids born Leicester ...

in one tree here.

I would very certainly try to contact the people who have Larry in their trees!

The first references I see of him in the papers are in Nottingham 1949- singing to the music of Al Washbrooke at the Victoria Ballroom.

It's amazing how someone so obviously well-known has left so little trace.

Somewhere, there is information that may make its way to the internet someday ...

One website asks about him in 2010 and then says he died about 8 years prior,so c2002
But he was probably using a stage name as not seeing a death for him as Larry Gretton

That's the Q&A that was referred to in the other thread Margaret had here and didn't tell us about, that I linked to. And certainly I hunted for births, marriages and deaths last night by every method known to genealogists with a bone. :-D

It was the reason I liked the Laurence for a bit, since his ER listing seemed to end in 2002, but that didn't work out.

I figured stage name, of course, it's just that adopting the surname 'Gretton' as a stage name seemed rather odd. Possibly it was something like his mother's name and worked better than his father's for show biz purposes.

In all seriousness, if Larry Gretton is a family member, Margaret, and there is a reasonable reason for wanting this info, I would approach Elvis Costello. He seems like a nice fellow. :-)

Just do not let him make you listen to his wife 'playing the piano' and 'singing'! :-D

Margaret, I just realized you had answered me by private message rather than posting here. Please just post here so everyone knows that you have read and replied :-)

I don't think this is info you want to keep private:

'thank you for your help all I know about him is that he was my grandma's cousin but as she is no longer with us i can not get any further .Beatrice day her dad John day married Eliza gretton'

So ... that may or may not be the case, as we who have celebrity/nobility tales in our trees all know :-D

'Cousin' could mean many things. I have a cousin (for real) who was Lord Chancellor ... just happens to be a second cousin four times removed ...

I'm not sure whether you know the Elvis Costello connection -- his father was Ross MacManus. Larry Gretton is mentioned in his obituary:

http://tinyurl.com/cjpwmnb

and

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/dec/21/ross-macmanus

MacManus joined Loss in 1955 and stayed for 14 years, sharing the vocal work with Rose Brennan and Larry Gretton. In the 1960s, the band had a regular weekday slot on the BBC Light Programme and later Radio 2, where each singer would perform current hit songs. Loss also had a residency at the Hammersmith Palais, where MacManus's young son, Declan – the future singer and songwriter Elvis Costello – would sometimes watch his father in rehearsals. In 1963 the orchestra performed at the Royal Variety Show, where Ross sang If I Had a Hammer.

Marriages Dec 1915
Day John H Gretton Leicester 7a 557
Gretton Eliza Day Leicester 7a 557

... They don't actualy seem to have had a child Beatrice - ?

Oh, she was a child of a previous marriage of John's?

Births Mar 1914 ?
DAY Beatrice P Sawbridge Leicester 7a 329

Marriages Jun 1913 ?
Day John H Sawbridge Leicester 7a 400
Sawbridge Phoebe Day Leicester 7a 400

So maybe a cousin by marriage. ;-)

GRETTON, ELIZA mother NEWTON
1890 D Quarter in BASFORD Volume 07B Page 232

So, Basford Nottinghamshire Grettons.


Eliza's family in 1911 in Leicester

William Herbert Gretton 49
Emma Gretton 53
Eliza Gretton 20
William Gretton 19
Edwin Gretton 17
Harold Gretton 13

The family in 1901

Emma Gretton 44
Herbert Gretton 39
Herbert Gretton 16
Sarah A Gretton 13
George Gretton 12
Eliza Gretton 10
William Gretton 8
Edwin Gretton 7
Harold Gretton 3

and in 1891:

Emma Gretton 34
Herbert Gretton 30
John Newton 14
Herbert Gretton 6
Robert Gretton 5
Sarah Jane Gretton 3
George Gretton 2
Eliza Gretton 5/12 mo

So that is a complete list of Eliza's brothers and sisters. If Larry was Eliza's nephew (her stepdaughter's first step-cousin), he had to be the son of one of those children.

Do you know the person who has in their tree:

Eliza Gretton 1891 Carlton Notts ...



See what a good idea it is to give the information you have in the first place, so people don't go chasing red herrings off on tangents?

I had the same pm that Joonie got, and have asked that margaret reply on the thread.

I did think that Larry was at the very least a shortening of a name, so I looked for Laurence / Lawrence

It is very strange that there was not a write up on his death, even if he was using a stage name, as he was seemingly so well known.

I found that entry from The Stage on FMP ........... but their newspaper records only go up to 1999.

It did not show on Google.

I liked the Harry Lawson Gretton suggestion.

This death:
Harry Lawson Gretton
Birth Date: 11 Jul 1921 Date of Registration: Jul 2001
Age at Death: 80 Registration district: Leicester
Inferred County: Leicestershire Register Number: E12D
District and Subdistrict: 6001E Entry Number: 11

Birth:
Births Sep 1921
Gretton Harry L Lawson Leicester 7a 549

Parents:
Marriages Dec 1919
Gretton Harry Lawson Leicester 7a 605
Lawson Edith Gretton Leicester 7a 605

From 1939, Harry L's father was born in 1891, and Edith in 1890.

GRO:
GRETTON, HARRY WILLIAMS
GRO Reference: 1891 M Quarter in LEICESTER Volume 07A Page 249

However, unfortunately, does not fit with JoonieCloonie's family.