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Alfred Lennon

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Alfred Lennon
Occupation(s)Office-boy, bellboy, Steward, Kitchen Porter, Dishwasher
Spouse(s)Julia Lennon (née Stanley) and Pauline Lennon (née Jones)
ChildrenJohn Lennon (with Julia) David Henry, and Robin Francis (with Pauline)
Parent(s)Jack and Mary 'Polly' (née Maguire) Lennon

Alfred "Freddie" Lennon (b. 14 December 1912) (d. 1 April 1976) was the father of English musician John Lennon. He came from a musical family—his father had been a stage performer in America—and also sang and played the Banjo himself. He was the fourth-eldest of the Lennon family in Liverpool, but spent many years in an orphanage (with his sister, Edith) after his father died. Freddie was known as being very witty and musical throughout his life, but not as being very dependable.

Freddie met Julia Stanley when he was 15-years-old, and they had an 11-year relationship together before they got married in 1938. John Lennon was their only son together, but Freddie was often away at sea during World War II, so consequently did not see much of John during his infancy. After he arrived back in Liverpool in 1944, he found that Julia was pregnant with another man's child, and wanted nothing more to do with him.

Freddie had very little contact with John until Beatlemania, when they met again, but later had intermittent contact with each other. Freddie died in Brighton, where he had gone to live after marrying the 19-year-old Pauline Jones. Freddie is referenced in the Lennon song, "Mother".

The Lennon family

The cover of Freddie's 1965 single, "That's My Life"

The original family name was O'Leannain, when they moved to Liverpool during the Irish potato famine (1845-1848).[1] Freddie's grandfather (John) was a professional singer, and later, a ship's cook. He emigrated to America, and Freddie's father, Jack Lennon, became a "refined" British minstrel who toured America with 'Robertson's Kentucky Minstrels' Vaudeville troupe in the late 1800s.[2][3] Jack's first (American) wife died during childbirth after they had moved back to Liverpool. Jack became a shipping clerk, living in a terraced house at 27 Copperfield Street, Liverpool. He also performed in local pubs, and later married his housekeeper, Mary 'Polly' Maguire, who had eight children by him, of whom only six survived—five boys and one girl: George, Herbert, Sydney, Freddie, Edith, and Charlie Lennon.[4] Jack Lennon died of liver disease on August 31921.[5]

Polly couldn't read or write, but was reported be very humorous and supposedly had psychic abilities. After Jack had died, Polly did not have enough money to hold the whole Lennon family together, so she placed two of her children, Freddie and Edith, in the Bluecoat School Orphanage. It was situated just around the corner from Newcastle Road (where Julia Stanley lived).[2] Polly died on January 301949.[4]

Alfred 'Freddie' Lennon (always called 'Alf' by his family) was known as being happy-go-lucky, and "couldn't resist having a good time".[5] Freddie had rickets as a child and wore leg braces, which led to his growth being stunted at 5'4".[6] In 1927, Alfred auditioned for a children's music hall act, Will Murray's Gang, at the Liverpool Empire Theatre. Having passed the audition he ran away from the orphanage and joined the show. Freddie travelled with the troupe for a time before being discovered in Glasgow and returned to the orphanage, where he was severely punished.[6] Freddie was known as being always quick with a joke or a witty line, but never held a job for any length of time. When he was 15-years-old he left the Bluecoat orphanage and found a job as an office-boy, but preferred to visit Liverpool's many vaudeville theatres and cinemas, where he knew the usherettes by name.[7] His brother Sydney often lent money to Freddie, after he got a job in tailor's shop.[5]

Julia Stanley

Sefton Park, where Julia first met Freddie Lennon

It was at the 'Trocadero' club (a converted cinema on Camden Road, Liverpool) that Freddie first saw an auburn-haired girl with a bright smile and high cheekbones; Julia Stanley.[8] Although Freddie did not speak to her, he saw Julia again in Sefton Park, where Freddie had gone with a friend to pick up girls. Freddie, who was dressed in a bowler hat and holding a cigarette holder, saw "this little waif" sitting on a wrought-iron bench. The 14-year-old Julia said that Freddie's hat looked "silly", to which the 15-year-old Freddie replied that Julia looked "lovely", and sat down next to her. Julia asked Freddie to take off his hat, so Freddie promptly took it off and threw it straight into the lake.[9]

Freddie was musical, and specialised in impersonating Louis Armstrong and Al Jolson. He played the banjo, (as did Julia) though neither Freddie nor Julia pursued music professionally. (Julia would later teach John how to play the banjo).[10] They spent their days together walking around Liverpool and dreaming of what they would do in the future—like opening a shop, a pub, a cafe, or a club.[11] In March 1930, Alfred took a job as bellboy on board the Cunard passenger liner SS Montrose. He kept in touch with Julia, writing to her and meeting her whenever he docked in Liverpool.[6] Freddie was offered a job on a whaling ship for two years—which could have earned Freddie enough money to buy a house—but he turned it down when he found out that Julia's father had arranged the job, so as to keep Freddie as far away from Julia as possible.[12]

On 3 December 1938, eleven years after they had first met, Julia married Freddie after proposing to him.[13] They were married in a Register office and Julia wrote 'cinema usherette' on the marriage certificate as her occupation, even though she had never been one.[7] None of Julia's family were there, but Freddie's brother Sydney acted as a witness. They spent their honeymoon eating at 'Reece's' restaurant in Clayton Square (which is where John Lennon would later celebrate after his marriage to Cynthia Powell)[14] and then went to a cinema. On their wedding night Julia stayed at the Stanley's house and Freddie went back to his rooming house.[7]

Julia's family did not like Alfred at all: Julia's father said Freddie was "certainly not middle class," and Julia's sister Mimi was particularly opposed to him.[7] Julia's father demanded that Freddie present something concrete to show that he could financially support Julia, but Freddie's only idea was to sign on as a Merchant Navy bellboy on a ship bound for the Mediterranean. He later worked on Ocean liners that travelled between the Greek islands, North Africa and The West Indies. Freddie graduated from bellboy to steward during the months he was away, but when he arrived back in Liverpool he moved into the Stanley home in Newcastle Road. He auditioned for local theatre managers as a 'ship's entertainer', but had no success, and went back to sea.[11]

John

File:USS John Land (AP-167).jpg
An example of a Troop-transport ship that Freddie worked on in the 1940s.

Julia found out that she was pregnant in January of 1940. John Lennon was born on 9 October 1940 in the second-floor ward of the Oxford Street Maternity Hospital in Liverpool, during the course of a German air raid in World War II.[11] Freddie first saw John that November when he returned from working as a merchant seaman on Troop-transports during World War II. He sent regular pay cheques to Julia, who lived with John at 9 Newcastle Road. Freddie occasionally went back to Liverpool, but did not stay long before he was sent off on another ship. [15] The cheques to Julia stopped when Freddie went AWOL in 1943. Neither Julia nor the Merchant Navy knew of Freddie's whereabouts. Julia only found out because she stopped receiving her allowance money, and the Navy wrote to her to inform her that they were looking for Freddie.[15]

Julia had started going out to dance halls in 1942, and met a Welsh soldier named 'Taffy' Williams who was stationed in the barracks at Mossley Hill. Freddie blamed himself for this, as he had written letters telling Julia that because there was a war on, she should go out and enjoy herself.[15] Julia took his advice, and often gave the young John a piece of chocolate or sugar pastry the next morning for breakfast that she had been given the night before.[16] She became pregnant by Williams in late 1944, though first claiming that she had been raped by an unknown soldier.[17]

When Freddie Lennon eventually came home on 13 January 1944, he offered to look after Julia, John and the expected baby, but Julia rejected the idea.[6] Freddie took John to his brother Sydney's house, in the Liverpool suburb of Maghull, a few months before Julia came to term. The baby girl, Victoria, was subsequently given up for adoption (after intense pressure from Julia's father and family) to a Norwegian Salvation Army Captain.[18][19] Julia later met Bobby Dykins and lived with him, but after considerable pressure from Mimi—who twice contacted Liverpool's Social Services and complained about John sleeping in the same bed as Julia and Dykins—Julia reluctantly handed the care of John over to Mimi.[20][21]

Whilst Freddie was away at sea, Charlie said that people used to visit the Lennon house in Copperfield Street, and offered large sums of money (up to £300) if Freddie would divorce Julia, but were told to "get lost" by Charlie Lennon.[22]

In July 1946, Freddie visited Mimi's house at 251 Menlove Avenue and took John to Blackpool for a long 'holiday'—but secretly intending to emigrate to New Zealand with him.[23] Julia and Dykins found out and followed them to Blackpool, and after a heated argument Freddie made the five-year-old John choose between Julia or him. John chose Freddie (twice) and then Julia walked away, but in the end John, crying, followed her.[24] Freddie lost contact with the family until Beatlemania, when he and John met again.[25] In 1968, John told Hunter Davies that he soon forgot his father, saying, "It was like he was dead."[5]

Later life

File:Beatles John Lennon 1964.jpg
John Lennon in 1964.

Freddie later told his version of what happened while he was AWOL ('Absent Without Leave') in 1943. He claimed that he had sailed from America to North Africa, but was arrested for stealing beer from the ship—consequently serving nine days in a military prison. After his release he became involved in various "shady deals", and was supposedly rescued from a criminal gang of Arabs. He eventually served on a troop ship from North Africa to Italy before finally boarding a ship that was making its way to England, in 1944.[3] In 1949, Alfred's career at sea ended when he was sentenced to six months imprisonment. He had been drinking when, late at night, he saw a mannequin in a wedding dress in a shop window. He broke the window, picked up the mannequin, and danced with it in the street until he was arrested.[6]

In 1958, when Freddie was working with Charlie Lennon in the 'Barn Restaurant' in Solihull, their brother Sydney sent a newspaper clipping from The Liverpool Echo reporting that Julia had died. A saddened Freddie left Solihull for London, but kept in touch with Charlie by phone.[22]

Freddie made no real attempt to contact his son [John] again until the height of Beatlemania (claiming he didn't know who The Beatles were). Freddie was working as a kitchen porter at the Greyhound Hotel in Hampton, South London, when someone pointed out a photograph of John in a newspaper and asked if Freddie was related to the famous John Lennon.[26]

While The Beatles were filming a scene for 'Help!' in the Scala Theatre in Soho, Freddie walked into Brian Epstein's NEMS office in Argyle Street, London, with a journalist. "I'm John Lennon's father", he explained to the receptionist. When Epstein was informed, he "went into a panic", and immediately sent a car to bring John to Argyle street.[27] Freddie did not look his best when meeting John, and had not seen him since 1945: He was shabbily-dressed, almost toothless, and stooping, with his unkempt, balding grey hair greased-back. He stuck his hand out to shake John's, but John did not take it. "What do you want?" growled Lennon. Freddie placated John somewhat by saying, "You can't turn your back on your family, no matter what they've done." Their conversation didn't last long, however, as Lennon soon ordered Freddie and the journalist out of the NEMS office.[28] Although most personal stories about The Beatles were kept out of the newspapers (by agreement with journalists who were offered exclusive stories in return) John opened a copy of The Daily Express a short time later and saw a photo of his father.[29][30]

A few weeks later, Cynthia opened the door of Kenwood (John and Cynthia's home in Weybridge) to see a man who "looked like a tramp", but alarmingly, with John's face. Cynthia invited Freddie in, and gave him tea and cheese on toast until John came home, which he was expected to do in an hour or so. Whilst waiting, Cynthia offered to cut Freddie's "long, stringy locks" of hair, which he allowed her to do. After waiting for a couple of hours, Freddie left.[31] John was annoyed when he came home, and told Cynthia (for the first time) about Freddie's visit to the NEMS office a few weeks before.[32] John relented slightly and contacted Freddie over the next few months, telling Cynthia that Freddie was, "Alright, Cyn. He's a bit 'wacky', like me." After Christmas, in 1965, John was embarrassed to hear that Freddie had made a record: "That's My Life (My Love and My Home)", released on 31 December 1965.[33] John asked Brian Epstein to do anything he could to stop its release, or becoming a hit. The record never made it into the charts, and was soon forgotten.[34]

Pauline Jones

The Palace Pier in Brighton. Freddie and Pauline Lennon lived in Brighton until his death.

Three years after meeting John in the NEMS office, Freddie (who was then 56-years-old) turned up at Kenwood again, with nineteen-year-old student Pauline Jones, who was Freddie's fiancée. Pauline had been an 18-year-old Exeter University student when she met the 54-year-old Freddie in 1966.[35] They said that they were in love and wanted to get married, although Pauline's mother was horrified and totally against the idea. Freddie asked John if he could give Pauline a job, so Pauline was hired to help with Julian Lennon and the piles of fan mail. Pauline spent a few months living at Kenwood in the attic bedroom, but Cynthia remembered Pauline, "crying all the time and arguing with her mother on the phone".[36][35]

Freddie and Pauline grew tired of trying to convince Pauline's mother to allow them to get married, so they eloped and were married in Gretna Green, Scotland.[36] Freddie and Pauline moved to a flat in Bourne Court, London Road, Patcham (in a suburb of Brighton) before relocating to Ladies Mile Road, Brighton, in November 1969. Freddie had two sons with Pauline: David Henry Lennon and Robin Francis Lennon, whom Lennon never met.[37][38]

Death

Before his death, Freddie wrote a manuscript detailing his life story which he bequeathed to John. It was Freddie's attempt to fill in the lost years that he had not been in contact with his son, and to explain that it was Julia, and not Freddie, that had broken up their marriage. John commented: "You know, all he wanted was for me to hear his side of the story, which I hadn't heard."[37] By 1976, Alfred had contracted terminal stomach cancer. Pauline contacted John via Apple to make sure that he knew that his father was dying. John sent a large bouquet of flowers to the hospital and phoned Freddie on his deathbed, apologising for his [John's] past behaviour. When Freddie died, John offered to pay for the funeral, but Pauline refused, and paid for the arrangements herself.[37]

Song Sample

'In My Life' is Lennon's song about his youth in Liverpool. Lennon: "The lyrics started out as a bus journey from my house at 250 Menlove Avenue [sic] to town, mentioning all the places I could recall. I wrote it all down."[29] Freddie replied to this song by releasing the single, "That's my life", in 1965.

Notes

  1. ^ Spitz 2006 p17.
  2. ^ a b Mersey Beat: Uncle Charlie Retrieved: 30 January 2007
  3. ^ a b The Lennon’s timeline Retrieved: 30 January 2007
  4. ^ a b Mersey Beat: Uncle Charlie-2 Retrieved: 30 January 2007
  5. ^ a b c d Spitz 2006. p21
  6. ^ a b c d e Freddies’s youth Retrieved: 1 February 2007
  7. ^ a b c d Cynthia Lennon – “John” 2006. p53.
  8. ^ Spitz 2006. pp21-22.
  9. ^ Spitz 2006. p22.
  10. ^ Miles 1998. p30.
  11. ^ a b c Spitz 2006. p23. Cite error: The named reference "Spitzp23" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  12. ^ Pauline Lennon 1990. p27
  13. ^ Spitz 2006. pp20-21.
  14. ^ Spitz 2006. p349.
  15. ^ a b c Spitz 2006. p25.
  16. ^ Spitz 2006. pp25-26.
  17. ^ Spitz 2006. pp26-27.
  18. ^ Spitz 2006. p27.
  19. ^ Lennon’s half-sister. bbc.co.uk: 24 August 1998 Retrieved: 30 January 2007
  20. ^ Cynthia Lennon - “John” 2006. p55.
  21. ^ Miles 1998. p32
  22. ^ a b Mersey Beat: Uncle Charlie-6 Retrieved: 31 January 2007
  23. ^ Cynthia Lennon - “John” 2006. p56.
  24. ^ Spitz 2006. p29
  25. ^ Spitz 2006. p30.
  26. ^ Cynthia Lennon – “John” 2006. pp238-239.
  27. ^ Spitz 2006. p497
  28. ^ Spitz 2006. pp497-498
  29. ^ a b Lennon’s 1980 ‘Playboy’ interview Retrieved: 16 January 2007
  30. ^ Spitz 2006. p498
  31. ^ Cynthia Lennon – “John” 2006. p239.
  32. ^ Cynthia Lennon – “John” 2006. pp239-240.
  33. ^ “That’s My Life” Single Retrieved: 2 February 2007
  34. ^ Cynthia Lennon – “John” 2006. p240.
  35. ^ a b Spitz 2006. p739
  36. ^ a b Cynthia Lennon – “John” 2006. pp240-241.
  37. ^ a b c "Lennon’s Lost Tape", The Argus: 13 April 2004 Retrieved: 31 January 2007
  38. ^ Cynthia Lennon – “John” 2006. p241.

References

  • Lennon, Cynthia (2006). John. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0340898283. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  • Lennon, Pauline (1990). Daddy Come Home. Angus & Robertson (UK). ISBN 978-0207169960. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  • Miles, Barry (1998). Many Years From Now. Vintage-Random House. ISBN 0-7493-8658-4. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  • Spitz, Bob (2006). The Beatles: The Biography. Little, Brown and Company (New York). ISBN 1845131606. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
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