Freddie Lennon

Alfred Lennon (14 December 1912 – 1 April 1976), also known as Freddie Lennon, was an English seaman and singer who was best known as the father of musician John Lennon. Lennon married Julia Stanley in 1938. John was their only child, but, as Alfred was away at sea during World War II, he did not see his son much during infancy. During this period, Julia became pregnant with another man's child. Alfred offered to look after his wife, their child, and the expected baby, but Julia rejected the idea. Alfred had very little contact with his son until Beatlemania, when they met again, but later the pair had only intermittent contact with each other. Alfred died in Brighton, England, where he had lived since marrying Pauline Jones, with whom he had two sons. Alfred Lennon's family had Irish ancestry. James Lennon (c. 1829 – 1898) and Jane McConville (c. 1831 – 1869), Alfred's grandparents, moved with their respective families to Liverpool in the 1840s. Their son, Jack, was born in 1855, and became a "refined" British minstrel, who toured the United States with Roberton's Kentucky Minstrels vaudeville troupe in the late 19th century. It is also claimed that Jack's first wife was an American who died during childbirth after they had both moved back to Liverpool. Jack eventually married Polly in 1915, after they had moved to Elmore Street, Everton. One of the witnesses at the wedding was Polly's sister, Catherine Seddon. Daughter Edith Lennon was born that year and then Charles (21 November 1918 – 26 May 2002). The Lennons moved back to Toxteth Park. By this time, Jack worked as a shipping clerk; he died in 1921, at 57 Copperfield Street. Polly could not read or write, but was reported to be very humorous and supposedly had psychic abilities. After Jack died, Polly did not have enough money to keep the whole Lennon family together, so she placed two of her children, Alfred and Edith, in the Blue Coat School Orphanage. It was situated just around the corner from Newcastle Road (where Julia Stanley lived). Polly died on 30 January 1949. Alfred Lennon (always called 'Alf' by his family), was known as being happy-go-lucky, and "couldn't resist having a good time". He had rickets as a child and wore leg braces, which led to his growth being stunted at 5 feet 4 inches (1.63 m). In 1927, Lennon auditioned for a children's music hall act, Will Murray's Gang, at the Empire Theatre in Liverpool. Having passed the audition, he ran away from the orphanage and joined the show. Lennon travelled with the troupe for a time before being discovered in Glasgow and returned to the orphanage, where he was severely punished. Lennon 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, Lennon 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. Lennon's brother, Sydney, often lent money to him after getting a job in a tailor's shop. Lennon first saw Julia Stanley at the Trocadero club, a converted cinema on Camden Road, Liverpool. Although he did not speak to her at the time, Lennon later saw Julia again in Sefton Park, where he had gone with a friend to meet girls. Lennon, 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 Stanley said that his hat looked "silly," to which the 15-year-old Lennon replied that Stanley looked "lovely," and sat down next to her. Stanley asked Lennon to take off his hat, which he promptly did and threw it straight into the lake. Alfred was a musician, and specialised in impersonating Louis Armstrong and Al Jolson. He played the banjo, as did Julia, although neither pursued music professionally (Julia would later teach their son how to play the banjo). They spent their days together walking around Liverpool and dreaming of what they would do in the future—such as opening a shop, pub, café, or a club. In March 1930, he took a job as bellboy on board the Cunard passenger liner SS Montrose. He kept in touch with Julia, writing letters and meeting whenever he docked in Liverpool. Alfred was later offered a job on a whaling ship for two years—which would have earned him enough money to buy a house—but turned it down on discovering that Julia's father had arranged it, in order to keep him away from Julia. On 3 December 1938, 11 years after they had first met, Julia married Alfred after proposing to him. They were married in the Bolton Street Register Office, and on the marriage certificate Julia stated her occupation as 'cinema usherette', even though she had never been one. Julia's family were absent from the wedding, but Alfred's brother Sydney acted as a witness. They spent their honeymoon eating at Reece's restaurant in Clayton Square (which is where his son would later celebrate after his marriage to Cynthia Powell), and then went to a cinema. On their wedding night, Julia stayed at the Stanleys' house and Alfred returned to his rooming house. Julia's family were opposed to Alfred: her father said he was "certainly not middle class," and her sister Mimi was particularly unimpressed by him. Julia's father demanded concrete evidence that he could financially support Julia, but Alfred'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. Whilst away he graduated from bellboy to steward, and on his return to Liverpool moved into the Stanley home in Newcastle Road. He auditioned for local theatre managers as a 'ship's entertainer,' but had no success, and so returned to sea. Julia discovered that she was pregnant in April 1940. John Winston Lennon was born at 6:30 pm on 9 October 1940, on the second-floor ward of Liverpool Maternity Hospital at Oxford Street. Suppositions that this was during a German air raid have been disproven. Alfred first saw his son 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 her son at 9 Newcastle Road (the Stanley family's home). He occasionally returned to Liverpool, but did not stay long before being sent off on another ship. The cheques to Julia stopped in 1943 when he went absent without leave. Neither Julia nor the Merchant Navy knew of his whereabouts. Julia discovered his disappearance because she stopped receiving her allowance money, and the Navy wrote to inform her that it was looking for him. Alfred later told his version of what happened while he was AWOL in 1943. He claimed that he had sailed from the United States to Bône, North Africa, but was arrested for stealing one bottle of beer from the ship. He consequently served nine days in a military prison. After his release he became involved in various "shady deals", allegedly rescued from a criminal gang of Arabs. He eventually served on a troopship from North Africa to Italy before finally boarding a ship that was making its way to England in 1944. Julia had started going to dance halls in 1942, and met a Welsh soldier named 'Taffy' Williams who was stationed in the barracks at Mossley Hill. Alfred blamed himself for this, as he had written to Julia urging her to go out and enjoy herself because there was a war on. Julia took his advice, and often gave her young son a piece of chocolate or sugar pastry the next morning for breakfast that she had received the night before. She became pregnant by Williams in late 1944, although initially claiming that she had been raped by an unknown soldier. When Alfred eventually returned to Liverpool on 13 January 1945, he offered to look after Julia, their son, and the expected baby, but Julia rejected the idea. A few months before the birth, Alfred took John to his brother Sydney's house, in the