David Beckham Family History

David Robert Joseph Beckham was born on May 2nd, 1975 to Ted and Sandra Beckham in Leytonstone in east London.

He attended school in Chingford.  He later said: ‘At school whenever the teachers asked, “What do you want to do when you’re older?” I’d say, “I want to be a footballer.”‘ He went to church every week with his parents because that was the only way he could play football for their team.

Ted and Sandra Beckham were fanatical Manchester United supporters.  David inherited his parents’ love of the team and he signed schoolboy forms for them on his 14th birthday.

He started out with Manchester United as a trainee in 1991 and was one of the famous group of young players that won the FA Youth Cup in 1992.  He became a regular in the first team in 1996.  Honors for club and country followed and he captained the England team between 2000 and 2006.  His football playing career continued until 2013.

His public profile exploded after his marriage in 1999 to the Spice Girls singer Victoria Adams (known as Posh Spice).  And he has remained in the spotlight ever since.  Netflix released a four-part documentary series about him in October 2023.  Among other things this documentary showed how difficult his parents found it to deal at first with David’s sudden rise to fame in the early 2000’s.

Beckhams in London

These Beckhams, according to one report, may have come from Jersey in the Channel Islands.  Another line has Norfolk as their likely origin and the Beckhams arriving in Lambeth in south London sometime in the 1780’s.

John Beckham, born in 1846, married in 1868 and found employment with the council at Walworth as a scavenger or street-sweeper.  His son William, born in 1870, worked as a carman, delivering goods on a horse and cart.  The family lived at 3 Victory Cottages in Walworth.

William Beckham, Father and Son.  William married Harriet Fletcher in Walworth in 1891.  They had ten children in total, including the unfortunate William Jr. who was born in 1900.

Tragedy came in 1912 with his death, aged just twelve. On August 3, he was one of twenty-four young Scouts of the 2nd Walworth Scout Troop that sailed from Waterloo Bridge down to Leysdown on the Isle of Sheppey on their cutter.  A sudden gale caught them and the boat capsized.  William was one of the eight young Scouts who drowned.

William his father died just five years later.

Edward Beckham’s Line.  Edward, his younger brother, became a seaman and, later, a Chief Petty Officer.  His elder son and David’s grandfather Aubrey (known as Ted) also became a seaman; while David’s father Ted was a kitchen fitter and his mother Sandra a hairdresser.

During this period the Beckhams had moved in London north of the river – firstly in the 1920’s to Wood Green and later, by the time of David’s birth, to Leytonstone.

David Beckham’s Family Tree

• William Beckham m. Harriet Fletcher (1873-1952) in Walworth in 1890
• – Martha Beckham (1892-1913)
• – John Beckham (b. 1898)
• – William Beckham (1900-1912), drowned
• – Edward Beckham (1901-1974)
• – Bertha Beckham (1904-1981)
• – James Beckham (b. 1906)

• Edward Beckham m. Queenie Eldridge (1902-1972) in Southwark in 1924
• – Aubrey Edward (Ted) Beckham (1925-1995)
• – Ronald Beckham (1929-1975)
• – Peter Beckham (1934-2014) m. Anne Dignan

• Aubrey Edward (Ted) Beckham m. Doris Hamilton (1929-1971) in Essex in 1946
• – David Edward (Ted) Beckham (b. 1948)

• David Edward (Ted) Beckham m. Sandra West (b. 1949) in Hackney in 1969, divorced in 2002; rem. Hilary Meredith in 2021
• – Lynne Beckham (b. 1972) m. Colin Every (divorced)
• – David Beckham (b. 1975)
• – Joanne Beckham (b. 1982) with Kris Donnelly (separated)

• David Beckham m. Victoria Adams (b. 1974) in a castle in Ireland in 1999
• – Brooklyn Beckham (b. 1999) m. Nicola Peltz in 2022
• – Romeo Beckham (b. 2002)
• – Cruz Beckham (b. 2005)
• – Harper Beckham (b. 2011)