Roger Daltrey 0
Early years
Roger Harry Daltrey was born in the Hammersmith area of London, but was raised in Acton, the same working class suburban neighborhood that produced fellow Who members Pete Townshend and John Entwistle. He was one of three children born to parents Irene and Harry Daltrey, and grew up with two sisters, Gillian and Carol. Harry Daltrey worked for a water closet manufacturer, and Irene Daltrey was told she would be unable to have children because of losing a kidney in 1937. Nevertheless, she went into labour during a World War II air raid and gave birth to her son at the nearby Hammersmith Hospital, West London. At the age of three, the young Roger swallowed a rusty nail which had to be surgically removed, leaving a visible scar. At the age of five, the rust from the nail caused an ulcer in his stomach which required him to be hospitalised.
Daltrey attended Victoria Primary School and then Acton County Grammar School for boys along with Pete Townshend and John Entwistle. He showed academic promise in the English state school system, ranking at the top of his class on the eleven plus examination that led to his enrollment at the Acton County Grammar School. His parents hoped he would eventually continue on to study at the university, but Daltrey turned out to be a self-described “school rebel” and developed a dedicated interest in the emerging rock and roll music scene instead.
He made his first guitar from a block of wood and formed a skiffle band called The Detours. When his father bought him an Epiphone guitar in 1959, he became the lead guitarist for the band and soon afterward was expelled from school for smoking. Describing the post-war times, Pete Townshend wrote in his autobiography, “Until he was expelled, Roger had been a good pupil. Then he heard Elvis and transmogrified into a Teddy Boy with an electric guitar and a dress-sneer. Was it simply rock roll? It was obvious to a young man as intelligent as
