Bragg was born on 6 October 1939 in Carlisle,[REF] the son of Mary Ethel (née Park), a tailor, and Stanley Bragg, a stock keeper turned mechanic [REF].
As a child, the woman he was led to believe was his maternal grandmother was in reality the foster parent of his own mother; his grandmother having been forced to leave the town due to the stigma of her daughter being born illegitimately [REF].