Pete Best - Early Life

Early Life

Best's mother, Mona Best (née Alice Mona Shaw), was born in Delhi, India and was the daughter of Thomas (an Irish major) and Mary Shaw. Her first son, Randolph Peter (Pete Best), was born in Madras (now Chennai), Madras Presidency, British India, on 24 November 1941. Pete's biological father was marine engineer Donald Peter Scanland, who subsequently died during World War II. Mona was training to become a doctor in the service of the Red Cross when she met Johnny Best. He came from a family of sports promoters in Liverpool which once owned and ran the Liverpool Stadium. After their marriage on 7 March 1944, at St. Thomas's Cathedral, Bombay, Rory Best was born. In 1945, the Best family sailed for four weeks to Liverpool on the Georgic, the last troop ship to leave India, carrying single and married soldiers who had previously been a part of General Sir William Slim's forces in south-east Asia. The ship docked in Liverpool on 25 December 1945.