|
John Winston Lennon was born on 9 October 1940, in the Oxford Street Maternity Hospital in Liverpool, to Julia Lennon (née Stanley) and Alfred "Freddie" Lennon, during the course of a German air raid in World War II. He was named after his paternal grandfather, John 'Jack' Lennon, and Winston Churchill. Freddie was a merchant seaman during World War II, thus was often away from home, but sent regular pay cheques to Julia, who was living with Lennon in 9 Newcastle Road, Liverpool, although the cheques stopped when Freddie went AWOL. When Freddie eventually came home in 1944, he offered to look after Julia and Lennon, but Julia rejected him. After considerable pressure from her sister, Mary "Mimi" Smith—who contacted Liverpool's Social Services—Julia handed the care of Lennon over to Mimi. In July 1946, Freddie visited Mimi and took Lennon to Blackpool, secretly intending to emigrate to New Zealand with him. Julia followed them, but after a heated argument Freddie made the five-year-old Lennon choose between Julia or him. Lennon chose Freddie (twice). As Julia walked away, Lennon began to cry and followed her. Freddie then lost contact with the family until Beatlemania, when father and son met again. Throughout the rest of his childhood and adolescence, Lennon lived with his Aunt Mimi and her husband George Smith—who had no children of their own—in a middle class area of Liverpool at 'Mendips' (251 Menlove Avenue). Mimi bought volumes of short stories, and George—who was a dairyman at a local farm—engaged Lennon in solving crossword puzzles and bought him a harmonica. Julia Lennon visited 'Mendips' almost every day and Lennon often visited her at 1 Blomfield Road, Liverpool. Julia taught Lennon how to play the banjo, and played Elvis Presley's records to him. The first song he learned was Fats Domino's Ain't That A Shame . Lennon was raised as an Anglican, and attended Dovedale County Primary School until he passed his Eleven-Plus exam. From September 1952 to 1957, he attended the Quarry Bank Grammar School in Liverpool, where he was known as a "happy-go-lucky" pupil, drawing comical cartoons and making fun of his teachers by mimicking their odd characteristics. Julia bought Lennon his first guitar in 1957, which was a Gallotone Champion acoustic. It was a cheap model that was "guaranteed not to split". She insisted it be delivered to her house and not Mimi's, who hoped that Lennon would soon grow bored with music, as she was sceptical of Lennon's claim that he would be famous one day, and often told him, "The guitar's all very well, John, but you'll never make a living out of it." On 15 July 1958, when Lennon was 17, Julia was killed on Menlove Avenue (close to Mimi's house) when struck by a car driven by an off-duty police officer. Her death was a major bond between Lennon and Paul McCartney, who also had lost his own mother (to breast cancer) at an early age. Lennon failed all his GCE O-level examinations, and was only accepted into the Liverpool College of Art with help from his school's headmaster and Mimi. Lennon met his future wife there, Cynthia Powell, when Lennon was a Teddy Boy. Lennon was often disruptive in class, and ridiculed his teachers by mimicking them, resulting in teachers refusing to have him as a student. Lennon failed his annual Art College exams despite help from Powell, and dropped out before the last year of college.
|
