Guy Cavill - John Lennon Story

On an autumn evening in Liverpool, a year after the outbreak of the Second World War, a young woman, Mary Mimi Smith, made her way through the darkened back streets of the city to the Liverpool Maternity Hospital in Oxford Street. The Germans had been carrying out air raids only a few days before, and on this particular night she was especially thankful that no bombs fell.* Mimi had only just phoned the hospital, learning that her sister Julia had given birth to a baby boy at 6:30pm, and she was excited to see her sister with her new son. At the hospital, holding the baby in her arms, she knew with complete certainty that this little boy would eventually be raised as her own.

It was 9th October 1940, and the child would later be named John Winston Lennon, after his paternal grandfather John Jack Lennon, and in a moment of patriotism, after Winston Churchill, the countrys recently elected prime minister. Johns father Alfred Alf as he was known was away at sea at the time of his sons birth. Though his work as a merchant seaman meant he was frequently away for long stretches of time, Julia was not left to fend for herself. She lived with her parents in a three-bedroom terrace house in Newcastle Road, close to Penny Lane, and both of them were of great assistance to her in looking after her new-born son.

Things continued in Newcastle Road for two years until Julia and John moved into a semi-detached cottage in Woolton Village that was owned by Mimi Smith and her husband George. The Smiths had offered her the house thinking that it might be a good idea for Julia to be closer to them, and perhaps to reclaim some of the independence shed sacrificed in moving in with their mother and father. But the two years they spent at the cottage were not happy ones, as Julia had taken to going out by herself now that she was away from the influence of her parents after all she needed something to alleviate the loneliness she was feeling: she rarely saw her husband, and when she did the tension was palpable.

*Mimi always insisted that there were air raids on the night of John Lennons birth, and as such this fact has made its way into most biographies written about him. However, recent research has uncovered that there were no raids on 9th October, though there were reports of 30 to 40 aircraft attacking the city on the 10th.

When Julias mother died in 1945, her father, finding that he couldnt bear to live in the house without his wife, moved in with some relatives. Julia jumped at the chance to return to Newcastle Road, and for a while things went smoothly. However, Julia started to feel lonely and cast adrift again. She often went out at night by herself, leaving John with a babysitter. And when Alf returned in early 1945, having not seen his son for over eighteen months, he was not prepared for the news that awaited him: Julia was pregnant.

Alf was quite gracious in offering to adopt Julias child, as Julia didnt want to marry the father, a Welsh soldier shed met by the name of Taffy Williams; but she was adamant that things wouldnt work between Alf and her. So, when Victoria was born, Julia gave her up for adoption. It was at this point that she met Bobby Dykins, with whom she later had two daughters: Julia and Jacqui. She never married Dykins (whom John nick-named Twitchy from the nervous tic he had) as she would not allow Alf the divorce he wanted. Dykins died tragically in 1966, the result of a car crash in Penny Lane.

Johns father Alf came back to Liverpool in January 1946, taking John with him to Blackpool a few days later. He knew a family there who were emigrating to New Zealand, and theyd asked him if he was interested in joining them, along with his son. Julia had found out where her husband was, and confronted him with what she knew he wanted to do. Alf felt cornered and asked John a question which would be pivotal to the childs life. He made the boy choose who he wanted to stay with. John chose his father, but when he saw how heartbroken his mother was he ran to her as she started to walk away. He called back to his father to join them but his father didnt come. It was twenty years later when they next met.

Though Julia obviously loved her son very much, she didnt feel that she could provide the security that her sister Mimi could offer him. So she reluctantly (but knowing it was for the best) handed John over to his aunt where he stayed for the rest of his childhood.