The 175-year old St Thomas Church on Rajpur Road in the Doon valley has an unforgettable connection with Sir Cliff Richard, one the greatest singing sensations the world has witnessed.
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 Dehradun and Mussoorie. The Church fell on bad days after Independence and was almost in ruins. However, it was renovated and is now in good condition. The church falls under the Church of North India (Diocese of Agra).
Few would know that Sir Cliff Richard was born in India. Even fewer would be aware that he was baptized in the Doon valley where he was brought as a new born from lucknow.
The baptism records of the St. Thomas Church in Dehradun indicate that he was born on 14 October,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 new millennium.
Responding to an e-mail message a few years ago from lokesh Ohri, who is part of an organisation that advocates conservation of heritage , Sir Cliff had expressed his concern over the condition of the church where he was baptized. 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 Britain. 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 Malarial 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. lambton, along with his band of surveyors and assistants, began his mission on April 10, 1802, with the first 7.5 milebaseline measurement between St. Thomas Mount in Madras and another chosen spot to its south. This measurement alone took 57 days. 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.