John Lennon was born to the sound of Hitler's bombs in Liverpool on the night of October 9th 1940. His mother Julia gave him the middle name Winston in tribute to Prime Minister Churchill. His father Alfred, a ship's steward, was at sea at the time of the birth and was to spend most of the war years away, either at sea or AWOL. The latter meant that Julia had no income so she continued to live at home with her father Pop Stanley and her sister Anne (Nanny). By 1946 Julia and Alf's marriage was over and John was not to see his father again until he was a famous Beatle. Julia met and moved in with John 'Bobby' Dykins. It was a small flat, and Mimi did not approve of Bobby and Julia living there with young John. She engineered it so that John came to live with her, much against Julia's wishes.

John lived with George and Mimi Smith at 'Mendips' on Menlove Avenue, and contrary to the myths put about, it was a comfortable, middle class existence.

His was also a pretty happy childhood. He was surrounded by his aunts - Julia was one of five sisters - and cousins and when his Aunt Elizabeth (Mater) moved to Edinburgh John, up until the age of 15, spent his summers in Durness, a remote croft in Scotland, a place he adored.

John's love of reading, writing stories and poems and drawing emerged early. But he was naughty and often up to mischief, so much so that he was expelled from kindegarten before going to Dovedale Road Primary School. He entered Quarry Bank High School in September 1952. But John, although bright and clever took no interest in conventional education and consequently left Quarry Bank with no formal qualifications, however with the help of his headmaster and a portfolio of his work he was accepted at art college.

Liverpool College of Art allowed him to indulge in the teddy boy dress and behaviour of the time, much to Mimi's disapproval. Although Julia, his mother, was far more easy going about how he looked and behaved. She also encouraged his interest in music. John's visits to see Julia and his half sisters, Julia and Jackie, were frequent and were often musical sessions where Julia would sing and play the banjo, which she taught John to play. This led him to want a guitar.

He pestered his Aunt Mimi for one and it wasn't long before she gave in. From then on John would sit on his bed making up tunes and singing along. The noise often got on Mimi's nerves and she'd banish him to the front porch with the words that have since become immortal, "The guitar's all very well, John, but you'll never make a living out of it."

In July 1958 Julia was tragically killed. She had been to visit Mimi and was on her way to the bus stop when a car ran her over. John, Mimi said: "Just went to his room into a shell." Some years later John recalled the incident as the worst night of his life, "I lost my mother twice. Once as a child of five and then again at seventeen. It made me very, very bitter inside. I had just begun to re-establish a relationship with her when she was killed."

Not long afterwards John met Cynthia Powell and they were soon boyfriend and girlfriend.

The skiffle craze was at its height and John formed his first band at school, the Quarry Men. They entered competitions and played at their school dance, and it was when the Quarry Men played at Woolton Parish Church Garden Fete that John met Paul McCartney for the first time.

The Beatles as they were known by 1960 now consisted of John, Paul McCartney, Pete Best, George Harrison and Stuart Sutcliffe (Stuart left the band in 1961 and when Ringo Starr joined the Beatles in 1962 the famous line-up was complete.) They made some appearances at the Jacaranda Coffee Bar and the owner Allan Williams arranged for them to appear in Hamburg, Germany.

From 1960 to 1962 they played at various nightclubs in Hamburg's Reeperbahn. This had a profound effect on their development.

On their return to Liverpool their playing and their appearance took on a whole new look. Now they started appearing regularly at the Cavern Club and in the pages of the magazine Mersey Beat. This bought them to the attention of Brian Epstein who owned a local record shop. He signed them up and his persistence eventually led to a record deal with Parlophone in 1962.

The Beatles first single 'Love Me Do' was released in October of that year and attracted considerable attention. Their second single, 'Please Please Me' went to No.1 in January 1963. A stream of hit records followed like 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand', 'Twist and Shout', 'She Loves You' ….. which made the Beatles household names. Beatlemania spread to America. On their return from their successful conquest of the United States in 1964 the Beatles seemed to spearhead the Swinging Sixties.

Married to Cynthia in 1962 John became a father when their son Julian was born on 8th April 1963. But fame, touring and his experimentation with drugs meant that he was never to spend much time with his young son.

The Beatles collected their MBEs from Buckingham Palace in 1966 (John sent his MBE back as a protest against Britain's involvement in Vietnam, Biafra and Nigeria). This was also the year in which they stopped touring. The four were now to get together only in the studio.

Around this time John met and got involved with avant garde artist Yoko Ono. In 1968 Cynthia and he were divorced and in March 1969 he married Yoko. The distance between the Beatles began to increase. The Beatles eventually came to an end in the High Court in 1971. They had dominated the pop music of the 1960's and even today their musical legacy is unrivalled.

Yoko and John left England for New York on 3rd September 1971 and by the time of John's death on 8th December 1980 he had never made a return visit to Britain.

Julian Lennon | Cynthia Powell Lennon