He would have been called Parkin today if his grandfather hadn’t decided to change his name. When this grandfather’s mother remarried and changed her name, from Parkin to Starkey, Ringo’s grandfather also changed his name to Starkey. This caused great confusion when at one time Ringo tried to trace his family back. The name Starkey is originally supposed to have come from the Shetland Isles. Ringo’s mother, Elsie Gleave, married his father, Richard Starkey, in 1936. They met when they were both working at the same Liverpool bakery. She is short, stocky and blonde and looks today very much like Mrs Harrison. When they got married they moved in with the Starkeys, Ringo’s father’s parents, in the Dingle. After Scotland Road, the Dingle is known as the roughest area of Liverpool. It’s in the centre, not far from the docks, far less salubrious than the slightly more airy new suburbs, where John, Paul and George were all brought up. ‘There’s a lot of tenements in the Dingle,’ says Ringo.
