A Matter of Names
Patricia was just 16 years old when she gave birth to Eric in a bedroom of her family home in Ripley, Surrey, on March 30, 1945. Now, this might be a little confusing but stay with me. Patricia’s step-father’s last name (Clapp) was different than her own (Clapton), and this could have tipped people off that Eric was not the son of his grandparents. But Eric was given the last name Clapton, which was really the last name of Patricia’s birth father, Reginald Cecil Clapton, who her mother separated from before she married Jack Clapp.
Eric Clapton, 1967. Photo By Marc Sharratt/Shutterstock
When Eric Clapton was just a few years old, Patricia (who he regarded as his sister) married another Canadian military man named Frank MacDonald. She ended up leaving the house and moved in with him in Canada, for a while, and then in Germany. While she could have chosen to raise Eric at that point, as she also went on to have more kids with MacDonald, she chose not to do and continued to act as Eric’s sister.