This is what’s new, pussycat. He has been hailed as the greatest living Welshman, but records of Sir Tom Jones’s ancestry have revealed the awkward truth: he is three-quarters English.

Returns of the 1911 census, released for the first time today, confirm that just one of the singer’s grandparents was of Welsh blood. The other three had parents from the West Country, with no Welsh connections.

The disclosure has shocked some of Sir Tom’s most loyal fans, who have promised to stand by him nonetheless.

During his long career, which took off in the mid-1960s, Sir Tom, 69, has made much of his Welsh origins. His father was a coal miner and he was born in Pontypridd and describes himself as a “proud, proud Welshman".

The census records for 1911 show his paternal grandparents were James Woodward, an ironmonger’s haulier born in Gloucestershire, and Anne Woodward, from Wiltshire.

His maternal grandmother was Ada Jones, who was born in Pontypridd although her parents came from Somerset and Wiltshire. His only all-Welsh ancestor was his great-grandfather Albert Jones, a miner born in Cardiff.

The disclosure surprised Margaret Owen, 54, a local historian and a lifelong fan. She said: “I can’t believe it. Tom is the symbol of Welsh manliness around the world and has been for decades.

“It is quite a shock to discover he has more English blood in his veins than Welsh, but we still love him.”

She added: “A lot of people moved from around Britain to South Wales at the end of the century because of the boom in the mining industry.”

Sir Tom Jones was born Thomas Woodward in 1940 and grew up in a small terraced house in Laura Street, Treforest, Pontypridd. He sang with a local band called Tommy Scott and the Senators but changed his name before releasing his first hit single It’s Not Unusual in 1965. His biggest UK hit was released the following year.

Green, Green Grass of Home was said to refer to his roots in the Welsh valleys, despite having been written by an American about the United States.

Sir Tom was so proud of his Welsh home that he bought the telephone box which once stood at the end of the street so he could take it to his new home in Los Angeles.

He now lives in Los Angeles, although he still makes regular visits to family and friends in Wales.

Another fan, Ann Hughes, who has turned her home in North Wales into a shrine to the singer, said: “This will surprise a lot of people who believe Tom is as Welsh as the red dragon and the daffodil. He may have English blood but it pumps through a Welsh heart. He is all man and all Welsh.”

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