‘I’m in the family way,’ Julia responded. When he called at Newcastle Road in November 1944, Alf made an optimistic bid for a resumption of carnal relations. Taffy Evans & John ‘Bobby’ Dykins (aka ‘Twitchy’) In the meantime, Julia took a job as a barmaid. It was a further eighteen months before he reappeared in Liverpool. On this occasion, he had served a month in prison for a ‘misunderstanding’ or desertion as the fussy officials insisted on calling it. In fact, Alf Lennon had been in one of his periodic tangles with the authorities, a proclivity he passed down to his son. Was Freddie dead? Nobody knew - but his marriage certainly was. One day Julia went to the Merchants Mercantile Offices to find that this had been stopped. The only useful purpose Alf Lennon served was to entitle his wife to ‘family allotment’ pay. The Stanleys did not approve of Julia’s party-loving lifestyle, either, though not on her husband’s account. He later claimed to be shocked that ‘during his time at sea, Julia had been going out most nights to local pubs and to dances…a married woman living the life of one unmarried.’ (Lewisohn) They had no children or plans to have any.Īlf and Julia stayed with the Smiths during his sporadic shore leave. She lived two miles away in a modest cottage inherited by George Smith, her sensible new husband. The sisters were managing the baby, with the eldest, Mary - universally known as Mimi - taking a central role. Back at Stanley HQ, they were in no hurry to see him back. Within weeks, however, the façade of a settled family began to crumble.įreddie returned to sea, where his ship would soon be chased by U-boats. On paper, they would be living with their (Stanley) in laws on Newcastle Street. In October 1940, Alf and Julia Lennon took their new-born baby home. The only good thing to come out of it was John. She just thought it was clever to defy the family. Then the War and a baby came in quick succession.
They reacted with horror when she married Alf on a whim, or more precisely to fulfil a dare. Julia, now a cinema usherette, was letting the side down. The Stanleys always believed they were several notches above the Lennons, claiming better breeding, education, nationality, religion, refinement resources and aspiration… They saw him as ‘low’, an archetypal ‘ scally’. Nor, according to the memory of the not always reliable Mr Lennon, did she respond to his letters.Īlf was popular with his peers, ‘a rascal.
In many respects the relationship was casual - Julia ‘never went to the docks to see him off’ (Lewisohn, p.17). He soon went off to join the merchant navy but would hook up with Julia on shore leave. She soon met one Alfred Lennon (AKA Alf, Fred and later Freddie). It was after she left school at fifteen that Julia’s vivaciousness became problematic for her family. Her innate musicality had also been recognised - her father taught her banjo and she could play the popular songs of the late Twenties by ear.
#Alfred lennon free#
From an early age, Julia had been ‘given licence within the family as the wild one, free spirited’. She was one of the five Stanley sisters from Toxteth, a working class area. Aunt Mimi Intervenesĭuring John’s earliest years, Julia Lennon was a lone parent. Alfred (known as Alf to his family and Freddie to the rest of the world) and Julia Lennon were legally separated in 1942.
His father, Alfred (Freddie) Lennon, went back to sea before John was born. John’s parents were married but did not live together. She named him John Winston - the Winston being a patriotic tribute to Winston Churchill, Britain’s new Prime Minister. In the end, however, the son of Julia Lennon (née Stanley) was delivered without incident at Liverpool Maternity Hospital. Perhaps Mimi was remembering the ever-present expectation of an imminent raid during those months.