Who were John Lennon’s parents?
When a ‘rascal’ met a rebel. What could go wrong?
Julia Stanley first met Alfred (aka Alf/Fred/Freddie) Lennon in 1929, when she was fifteen and he was two years older. They met in Sefton Park, exchanging come banter from the start. Both worked in junior office jobs.
Superficially they had similar temperaments.Julia was vivacious, fun loving, a natural rebel. Alf was a popular with his peers, ‘a rascal. An absolute character’ said one pal.
There was also a shared musicality. Julia loved singing and played banjo. Alf sang, specialising in comedy songs and comically mangling the words of standards. Like his brothers — and later his son — Alf played the harmonica.
The Stanleys
The rebel meets rascal combination did not go down well with Julia’s family: the tight-knit Stanley clan. They saw Alf as ‘low’ — and they were not referring to his diminutive stature (he was 5.3”)
The Stanleys always believed they were several notches above the Lennons, claiming better breeding, education, nationality, religion, refinement resources and aspiration…at least some of which is debatable.
There may also have been an element of sectarianism — the Stanleys were protestant while the Freddie’s name, address and former school marked him as a nominal Catholic.
He also seemed to be the archetypal ‘scally’ — a figure of fun in Liverpool but not one welcomed into respectable families. That he had been placed in an orphanage after the death of his father might have evoked sympathy — but it also confirmed the impression that he was a young man to be avoided.
Soon after meeting Julia, Freddie joined the merchant navy. This meant long absences from Liverpool. Their relationship had continued intermittently, apparently without much commitment from either party.
In many respects the relationship was casual — Julia ‘never went to the docks to see him off’ (Lewisohn, p.17). Nor, according to the memory of the not always reliable Mr Lennon, did she respond to his letters.
Julia, now a cinema usherette, did continue to see Alf/Fred when he was on shore leave. Then in 1938 she suddenly married her occasional boyfriend. This appears to have been on a whim, or more precisely to fulfil a dare.
The Stanleys were horrified. ‘We were all shocked. She just thought it was clever to defy the family. We all make mistakes.
War: international and domestic
War and a baby came in quick succession — but the marriage remained nominal. Julia never lived with Freddie and went back to sea before John was born.
He never really came back. Alfred and Julia Lennon were legally separated in 1942. Famously, Julia then gave up care of her son to her sister Mimi.
Freddie would make one final, melodramatic appearance in John’s childhood — the notorious tug-of-love on Blackpool promenade. He had somehow persuaded Mimi to allow him to take John out for the day — Julia rushed off in hot pursuit. The precise details of what happened are clouded by the partisanship of those retelling.
Was John really asked to choose between his parents? That’s how he remembered it — and how must have felt emotionally. But a witness, Billy Hall, claims this didn’t happen. A Lewisohn points out, there was only one choice available. Freddie did not realistic plan to take custody.
John went back to his home with Aunt Mimi. Freddie went back to sea and disappeared from his son’s life for twenty years — a desired outcome as far as both Stanley sisters were concerned. In 1968, John Lennon told Hunter Davies that he soon forgot his father, saying, “It was like he was dead.”
Aunt Mimi never changed her opinion about what she considered to be an ill-considered match. ‘The only good thing to come out of it was John,’ she later said.
Freddie’s Back
It is unclear how informed Freddie was about his son’s upbringing. He does seem to have been aware of the death of Julia in 1958, as this was a prominent new story. But it would not be 1964, when Beatlemania was on every front page that he made a move.
When the Beatles were filming a scene for A Hard Day’s Night in the Scala Theatre in Soho in April 1964, Alf walked into Brian Epstein’s NEMS office in Argyle Street with a journalist. “I’m John Lennon’s father,” he explained to the receptionist. When Epstein was informed, he “went into a panic,” immediately sending a car to bring John to NEMS office. Alf was shabbily dressed, with his unkempt, thinning grey hair greased back. When John arrived, Alfred stuck out his hand, but John did not take it.
Who can blame him? Deadbeat dad reappears after decades, with his hand out for a financial touch. Not a good start to repairing familian fences.
