Mona Best

Mona Best
Mona Best in 1963
Born	3 January 1924 Delhi, India
Died	9 October 1988(1988-10-09) (aged 64) Liverpool, England
Occupation	Housewife, Club Owner
Spouse(s)	Donald Scanland, John Best
Children	Randolph Peter Best, Rory and Vincent Roag Best
Parent(s)	Thomas and Mary Shaw (née Shelverton)

Mona "Mo" Best (3 January 1924 – 9 October 1988) was a British music club proprietor, best known as the owner of The Casbah Coffee Club, a club in Liverpool which served as a venue for rock and roll music during the late 1950s and 1960s. Among the bands to play at The Casbah was The Beatles, for whom her son Pete Best was a drummer at the time. Mona also had two other sons, Rory (b. 1944), and Vincent "Roag" Best (b. 1962). It was later confirmed that Roag's father was The Beatles' associate, Neil Aspinall, although he was not registered as the father on Roag's birth certificate.

After moving to Liverpool from India, where she was born, Mona used gambling winnings to buy a house in 1957. Mona later opened The Casbah Coffee Club in the cellar of the house. It was planned as a members-only club for her sons and their friends. The club was often referred to as The Casbah Club, or The Casbah. In 2006, the property was accorded a Grade II Heritage listing.

Mona died in 1988, after a heart attack following a long illness.

Alice Mona Shaw was born on 3 January 1924, in Delhi, India, to Thomas (an Irish major) and Mary Shaw. She was the youngest of four children: Brian, Patrick and Aileen. Her first son, Randolph Peter Scanland (later surnamed Best), was born on 24 November 1941. Pete's biological father was marine engineer Donald Peter Scanland, who subsequently died during World War II. Mona was training with the Red Cross when she met Johnny Best, who came from a family of sports promoters in Liverpool that once owned and ran the Liverpool Stadium. At the time of their meeting, Best was a commissioned officer serving as a Physical Training Instructor in India, and was the British Army's middleweight boxing champion. After their marriage on 7 March 1944, at St. Thomas's Cathedral, Bombay, the Bests had one child: Rory Best (b. January 1945). In late 1945, the family sailed for four weeks to Liverpool on the Georgic, which was the last troop ship to leave India, carrying single and married ranks who had previously been a part of General Sir William Slim's forces in southeast Asia. The ship docked in Liverpool on 25 December 1945.