In the late 1950s and early 60s I was living in a boarding house in Westfield Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham. The landlord called himself Cliff Townshend and told me that he had been a saxophonist in the RAF dance band known as the Squadronaires. He once played to me on his saxophone. During the period that I knew him his wife told me that they were both aged 50. She had once been one of a pair of sisters in a music-hall double act. They were childless. They moved away from Birmingham rather suddenly in the early 60s.
.
Many years later I obtained an LP of the Squadronaires which has a photograph of the members of the band on the sleeve. My old landlord is clearly visible, though looking younger than when I had known him. Here is the part of the photograph showing him.
The Squadronaires had been a famous band so when the Internet became available I did a search for Cliff Townshend. I found a biography of a person with that name but he was not my landlord. He had certainly been a saxophonist with the Squadronaires but he was several years younger than my landlord and he had had children, one of them being born at the time when my landlord and his wife were in Birmingham.
This called for a further search and I found a site containing a copy of the photograph on the LP sleeve. Underneath the photograph the names of the bandsmen are listed in order. My landlord is named as Monty Levy and the name Cliff Townshend corresponds to another person. How
ever, the names had been listed long after the photograph had been taken. Some names were omitted and there may have been errors due to forgetfulness. Thus other websites include one with a photograph showing Monty Levy as a different person and another stating that he was Scottish, which my landlord almost certainly was not.
ever, the names had been listed long after the photograph had been taken. Some names were omitted and there may have been errors due to forgetfulness. Thus other websites include one with a photograph showing Monty Levy as a different person and another stating that he was Scottish, which my landlord almost certainly was not..
The lower photograph is from the LP sleeve. The listing in the website names the subject as Cliff Townshend. The listing was done by by Les Johnstone, a friend of Cliff, so this is almost certainly the real Cliff Townshend.
.Squadronaire saxophonists named on the LP sleeve are Bradbury, Lewis, Durrant, McDevitt, Levy, Townshend, Grey, Moss and Honeywell.
.
.
It is clear that my landlord was not the real Cliff Townshend but he must have been known by that name quite generally in Birmingham. His bank account must have been in that name, for that is the name that I used on my rental cheques. I remember how at first I had to remember to include that unexpected letter h in the name.
.
.
Who then was he? Why did he leave Birmingham quite suddenly and what happened to him? Did his identity theft lead to any legal action?
.
Another strange thing is that he told me that before the war he had played in the band of the generously endowed xylophonist Teddy Brown, 1900-46. But Brown is well covered by websites and it appears that he was a bandleader only from 1926-8 when my landlord was quite young. So is it just a coincidence that W. Townsend (no h), tenor saxophone, joined Brown's band in 1927?
Any answers please!
