Beatles by Hunter Davies Page A

what happened to his marriage is naturally a bit different. He was in New York when the war broke out and heard he was to be transferred to a liberty ship as an assistant steward instead of a head waiter. ‘It meant I would lose my rating. I didn’t mind getting involved inthe war, but I couldn’t put up with losing my rating, could I? The captain of the passenger ship I’d been working on advised me what to do. He said, “Freddy, go and get drunk and miss your boat.”’
    This is what Fred did, and he ended locked up on Ellis Island. He was told again to join a liberty ship. Fred said he wanted to be head waiter on the Queen Mary . He was at last marched on to a liberty ship, heading for North Africa. When they arrived there, Fred was put in jail.
    ‘One of the cooks on board had said to me one day, go and get a bottle from his room. I was drinking it when the police arrived. I was supposed to have broached the cargo. I hadn’t. It had all happened before I got on board, but the whole crew got off, except me. Stealing by finding, that was what it was. I defended myself, but it didn’t do no good.’
    Fred spent three months in jail. Naturally, he says, his money to Julia stopped. He hadn’t any to send her, but he did send her some letters. ‘She loved my letters. I said to her, there’s a war on, go out and enjoy yourself, pet. That was the biggest mistake of my life. She started enjoying herself and met someone else. And I’d told her to.’
    John has vague memories of his days living with the Stanleys, being looked after by his mother while Fred was at sea, although he could not have been more than four years old at the time. ‘One day my grandad took me for a walk to the Pier Head. I had a new pair of shoes on and they hurt me all the way. My grandad slit the heels with a penknife so they would be comfortable.’
    He did get the impression from his mother that she and Fred had had some happy times. ‘She told me about them always larking around and laughing. I think Fred must have been popular. He used to send us ship’s concert lists with his name on singing “Begin the Beguine”.’
    Julia, according to her sisters, was always singing as well. ‘She was gay, witty and full of fun,’ says Mimi. ‘She never took life or anything seriously. Everything was funny, but she couldn’t seeinto people until it was too late. She was more sinned against than sinning.’
    Fred went back to sea again, after Julia had gone to live permanently with the new man, and John went with Mimi. During one leave Fred decided to go and visit John at Mimi’s house. ‘I rang up from Southampton and spoke to John on the phone. He must have been getting on for five by then. I asked him what he was going to be when he grew up, that sort of thing. He spoke lovely English. When I heard his scouse accent years later, I was sure it must be a gimmick.’
    Fred arrived in Liverpool, worried sick, so he says, about John, and went to visit Mimi. ‘I asked John how he’d like to go to Blackpool and go on the fair and play in the sea and the sand. He said he’d love it. I asked Mimi if I could. She said she couldn’t refuse. So I set off with John for Blackpool – intending never to come back.’
    Fred and the five-year-old John spent some weeks in Blackpool, staying with a friend of Fred’s. ‘I had bags of money at the time. You couldn’t go wrong in those days, just after the war. I was on lots of rackets, mainly bringing back black market stockings. They’re probably still selling the stuff in Blackpool I brought over.’
    The friend he was staying with in Blackpool was planning to emigrate to New Zealand. Fred decided to go with him. All the preparations were made, when one day Julia arrived at the door.
    ‘She said she wanted John back. She’d now got a nice little home and decided she wanted him. I said I was now so used to John I was going to take him to New Zealand with me. I could tell she still really loved me. I