[4] Their father, George Ernest Stanley, retired from the Merchant Navy and found a job with the Liverpool & Glasgow Salvage Association as an insurance investigator.

[6] Alfred Lennon—always called "Alf" by his family[7]—was always joking but never held a job for very long, preferring to visit Liverpool's many vaudeville theatres and cinemas, where he knew the usherettes by name.

[4] At the Trocadero club, a converted cinema on Camden Street, Liverpool, he first saw an "auburn-haired girl with a bright smile and high cheekbones": Julia Stanley.

[9] Despite standing only five feet two inches (157 cm) tall in heels, she was attractive and full-figured, so she often caught the gaze of men in the street.

[9] Her voice sounded similar to Vera Lynn's, whilst Lennon specialised in impersonating Louis Armstrong and Al Jolson.

[10] They spent their honeymoon eating at Reece's restaurant in Clayton Square (which is where their son would later dine after his marriage to Cynthia Powell), then went to a cinema.

[4] Her father demanded that he present something concrete to show that he could financially support his daughter, but Alf signed on as a Merchant Navy steward on a ship bound for the Mediterranean.

Smith would later claim that she went straight to the hospital during the middle of an air raid and was forced to hide in doorways to avoid the shrapnel from falling bombs,[16] but in actuality, there had been no attack on Liverpool that night.

[20][21] In July 1946, Alf visited the Smith house, Mendips, at 251 Menlove Avenue, and took John to Blackpool for a long holiday, but he was secretly intending to emigrate to New Zealand with him.

A witness who was there that day, Billy Hall, said the dramatic scene often portrayed with a young John Lennon having to make a decision between his parents never happened.

[25] Various reasons have been suggested for her decision, such as Dykins' unwillingness to raise the young boy, Julia's inability to cope with the responsibility, or a punishment forced on her by Smith and her father for living with a lover.

"[25] He then lived continuously at Mendips, in the smallest bedroom above the front door,[26][27] with Mimi determined to give him a "proper upbringing".

[25] Julia later bought John his first guitar for £5-10-0 (five pound ten shillings, or £5.50 in decimal money) after he had pestered her incessantly for weeks, but insisted it had to be delivered to her house, not her sister's.

[36] John frequently visited her house during that period, detailing his anxieties and problems, where she gave him encouragement to continue with music over Smith's objections.

[41] Julia's daughter, Victoria Elizabeth, born in the Elmswood Nursing Home on 19 June 1945,[43] was subsequently given up for adoption to a Norwegian Salvation Army Captain and his wife (Peder and Margaret Pedersen) after intense pressure from the Stanley family.

[47] Paul McCartney later stated that Julia living in sin with Dykins while she was still married was a point of social ostracization for John, as it was often used as a "cheap shot" against him.

[50][5] In December 1965, Dykins was killed in a car crash at the bottom of Penny Lane, but John was not told about his death for months afterwards, as it was "not [Stanley] family business".

[53] Baird remembered that after Lennon had visited them, their mother would often play a record called, My Son John, To Me You Are So Wonderful, "by some old crooner, and sit and listen to it".

)[54] After Julia's death, the two girls (aged eleven and eight) were sent to stay in Edinburgh at Aunt Mater's (Elizabeth) and were only told two months later, by their uncle Norman Birch, that their mother had died.

[55] The commercial success of the Beatles allowed John to buy a four-bedroomed house in Gateacre Park Drive, Liverpool, for Julia and Jackie to live in with the Birches.

"[5][failed verification] Julia and Jackie later met their half-sister, Ingrid Pedersen, when they were present at the ceremony to place a Blue Heritage plaque on Smith's house to commemorate that John had lived there.

When all three finally met for the first time, Baird was shocked that Ingrid did not look anything like the Stanley family, as she had "pale blue eyes and fair hair".

[5][failed verification] Julia visited Mimi nearly every day, where they would chat over tea and cakes in the morning room or stand in the garden when it was warm.

[56] Julia was struck and killed by a Standard Vanguard car, driven by an off-duty constable, PC Eric Clague, who was a learner-driver.

[48] John could not bring himself to look at his mother's body when he was taken to the Sefton General Hospital, and was so distraught that he put his head on Smith's lap throughout the funeral service.

[5] A headstone was subsequently placed on Lennon's grave (replacing a wooden cross), with the words "Mummy, John, Victoria, Julia, Jackie" inscribed.

[62] His mother's death traumatised the teenage Lennon and, for the next two years, he drank heavily and frequently got into fights, consumed by a "blind rage".

[63] It contributed to the emotional difficulties that haunted him for much of his life, but also served to draw him closer to McCartney, who had also lost his mother at an early age.

[64] "Mother" and "My Mummy's Dead" were both written under the influence of Arthur Janov's "Primal Scream" therapy, and released on his solo album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band in 1970.

[58] When he inducted John Lennon into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist, Paul McCartney described Julia in his speech as a very beautiful woman with long red hair who played the ukulele.