Julia Baird - John's Sister

“My Son John, To Me You Are So Wonderful”

This song, “My Son John, To Me You Are So Wonderful” was Julia’s favourite, and the song that kept her going through the years that she was denied access to her son. She had a daughter adopted and taken away from her. She had John, and he was taken away from her, and then her life was taken at a tragically young age.

To find out more about Julia Lennon, I spoke to Julia Baird, Julia Lennon’s daughter and John’s half-sister. In February 2007, she published a book called, “Imagine This – Growing up with my brother John Lennon.”

To really understand Julia Lennon, John’s mum, I realised that so many of the books that have been published were inaccurate. Julia Baird wrote a book many years ago called “John Lennon, My Brother” with Geoffrey Giuliano. I soon realised after reading that book that the stories Mimi had been telling willing listeners were not right. At that stage, many of the things that Mimi had said had been readily accepted because there was no proof otherwise, and no one was prepared to contradict her.

Now, Julia Baird’s new book has gone that step further and it is amazing what she has turned up.

John's mum was born Julia Stanley, the fourth of five sisters, and she grew up in a lower-middle class family as the black sheep of the family. She was the rebel. (Sound familiar?).

The Stanleys were a class-conscious family. Annie Stanley (nee Millward) was from a middle-class Methodist Church family, and she married George Stanley (known as 'Pop'). Annie (known as Mama) was a devout Methodist churchgoer. Julia was Pop's favourite, though she did try his patience at times.

The sisters were:

Mary Elizabeth – known as Mimi, born in 1906

Elizabeth Jane – known as Betty, Liz or Mater, born in 1908

Anne Georgina – known as Nanny, born in 1911

Julia – known as Judy, born in 1914

Harriet – known as Harrie, born in 1916

Mimi had no children and had spent her time helping the other sisters with their babies. She had been engaged to a young doctor and was very much in love. Sadly, he died in hospital before they were married. Mimi had known George Smith, the dairy farmer in Woolton for some time. They were married in September 1939: he was 43, and she was 1933, with the agreement that there would be no children.

George and Annie were keen for their daughters to marry well, and when Betty married the wealthy, respectable, Captain Parkes, they were delighted. How disappointed they were when Julia started courting Alfred Lennon.

Julia was a redheaded beauty who played the piano, piano accordion, banjo and ukulele. But, she has often been portrayed as a fun-loving, good-time girl who gave away her son and didn’t much care, as she wanted to enjoy her life, and not be constrained by a young son.

For years, too many authors have misrepresented the real story of the life of Julia Lennon. Her daughter, also Julia, wants the truth to be known.

In December 1938, Julia and Alf were married, a decision not welcomed by Julia’s family. With the outbreak of war imminent, the Stanley family had moved from their family home in Berkeley Street to a rented home at 9, Newcastle Road. Pop, Annie, Mimi, Nanny and Julia all lived in the house together, as Julia and Alf did not have a house of their own, and Alf was at sea.

Harrie had married an Egyptian man and they had a child, but he died in 1941, and Harrie returned to Liverpool, and after a short time she met and married Norman Birch.

Also in 1941, Annie Stanley died. Mimi assumed the role of the matriarch of the family – the moral voice. How ironic this would become.

On his return from voyage, Alf would stay with the family at Newcastle Road. However, one day when Julia went to the Seamen’s Mission to collect her 8 shillings wages from Alf – she collected it every two weeks – she discovered that there was no money there for her: Alf had gone AWOL (Absent With Out Leave). For the next 18 months, she had no money and no support or contact from Alf.

In the meantime, Mimi’s husband George had lost his dairy farm. It was requisitioned by the Government for the war effort, and a factory was built on its site making barrage balloons. There wasn’t much money from this deal, and George ended up owning the small Dairy Cottage on Allerton Road, Woolton. Mimi and George were bitter about this for years.

Julia and John were allowed to move into the cottage and for a short time, when he was home, Alf, Julia and John lived together as a family, the only time they did. Alf soon returned to sea despite Julia’s protestations. Julia moved back to Newcastle Road with John to live with Pop again.

To earn some money for them, Julia got a job at a local cinema as an usherette. She met a soldier known as Taffy Williams (Taffy is a nickname for a Welshman) and after an affair she became pregnant. Pop was insistent that the baby be adopted, and after being born in a local Salvation Army home – Elmswood – the baby girl, whom Julia named Victoria, stayed with her for six weeks before being adopted by a Norwegian man and his Liverpool born wife. Unknown to Julia and the family, she lived in Liverpool for a while before they moved to Hampshire. She had been renamed Ingrid, and Julia would never see her daughter again.

Between 1946 and 1949, Pop demanded that John be brought on a regular basis for him to see him. This was the only chance that Julia had of seeing her son.

This is an excerpt from the full interview with Julia. The interview can be found in the book.