1940
The air raid story has been told over and over again. Many of you likely already know most if not all of the details that I’ll be including here. But there are reasons that I have decided to bring it all up again. First, studying the lifetimes of The Beatles begins with looking at 1940, the year Ringo and John were born. So barring bringing in information about their families and ancestors, 1940 is the most appropriate starting point. Second, since so many people already know the details of this particular story, it should be easy to follow the “facts.”
Most importantly, the air raid story is one of the few things that I’ll be writing about that has a very clear conclusion. That is, we can determine with no real doubt whether the story is true or false. Therefore, it will act as a clear, unconvoluted example of what I hope to do with these writings and how I intend to go about illustrating how stories have evolved over the years, with new information brought forward by sources over the decades. So let’s take a look at the air raid story and give you a chance to contribute any thoughts you have about these few sources.
The question of the day: Was John Lennon born during an air raid?
In His Own Write
“I was bored on the 9th Octover 1940 when, I believe, the Nasties were still booming us…”1 So states the ”About the Awful” section in John’s 1964 book, In His Own Write. Those who believe the air raid story may point out that this quote indicates that John believed that he was indeed born during an air raid. But the likelihood that he would have remembered is extremely low. A 2021 study by Dr. Carole Peterson at Memorial University of Newfoundland and published in the journal Memory, found that “infantile amnesia” may end around the age of two and a half at the earliest. And even those memories may not be concrete, so to speak. John may have been exceptional in many ways, but able to recall the day he was born? Well… It seems far more likely to me that John heard the story from someone in his family. As for which one, let’s move ahead about four years.
Hunter Davies’ Authorized Biography of The Beatles
Actually, just before the release of the Davies book in 1968, The Beatles (Monthly) Book, No. 59, June 1968, published a list of thirteen “facts,” provided by Davies, in the form of a quiz. The first question and its answer said, “[John] was born during a heavy air-raid at seven in the morning [on October 9, 1940]”.2 This statement is repeated in the authorized biography itself and together, these statements mark the first tellings of this story. It looked, interestingly, like the story would just fade away, as I cannot find it mentioned again before 1976. But…
Between 1976 and 1985, the story is told in at least twenty books. About half of them were published within approximately three years of John’s death. Interestingly, not a single one credits a source for the information. But there is no lack of dramatic storytelling. Conrad Snell, for example, in his 1981 John Lennon 4Ever, says “the skies rained down German bombs on the Liverpool seaport that October day in 1940…”3 No source for the information is given, and it may not surprise you, a lack of crediting sources will be one the most commonly occurring hurdles in progressing with this project. But we keep moving on. In this case, Hunter Davies did eventually divulge where his information came from. In 2009, referring specifically to the air raid story in the updated introduction to the authorized biography, Davies wrote, “that’s what John himself told me, ditto his Aunt Mimi and his father, Fred. It was the family legend, still going strong in 1968.”4
Doubts
In 1981, Philip Norman provided the first actual doubt that I’ve found about the veracity of the story. In Shout!, he simply says that John was born “during a brief respite in Nazi Germany’s bombing of Liverpool.”5 New information! He would certainly say how he knew this, right? Well, no. No sources credited. Hunter Davies wrote, again in the 2009 updated introduction to his book, that Rod Davis, one of the original members of John’s pre-Beatles band, The Quarrymen, had searched the archives of the Liverpool Echo newspaper, which had, of course, provided nightly accounts of the progression of the war. Those accounts told of an air raid on October 10, 1940, but all quiet on October 9. Furthermore, in Mark Lewisohn’s 2013 Tune In, he wrote that official Liverpool war records show no air raids between around midnight of October 8 and the evening of October 10.
By the 1980s, it was pretty well established that the air raid story is false. And yet, I have still found references to it as fact as far forward as 2012. This once again provides evidence for how important it is to know the sources of information. Newman University Professor Erin Torkelson Weber, in her 2016 The Beatles and the Historians, wisely said, “in recounting history, all evidence, including direct eyewitness testimony, requires analysis, and, if necessary, independent verification.”6
Oh, Just One More Silly Thing
I know, you’re thinking “I knew all that!” But did you know this? John Tobler’s 1984 The Beatles contains quite a shocker. “Ringo Starr…was born on July 7, 1940, during an air raid in a part of Liverpool known as The Dingle.”7 I will say that I have not yet found another publication that corroborates this bombshell (so to speak). The closest I have found are comments about how Ringo’s mother was still recovering from childbirth the following month when the bombing started. But let’s just go ahead and lay this one to rest quickly. Richard Whittington-Egan’s 1987 The Great Liverpool Blitz, Anthony Hogan’s 2014 Merseyside at War, The Liverpool Echo, official war records, and even Wikipedia (ha!) all agree that the bombing of Liverpool began in August 1940.
So, case pretty much closed on this one. Please leave comments to let me know what you think and to add any relevant information to the discussion. Thank you for being here and thank you for reading. Please follow or subscribe to
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Next week I’ll be writing about some early songs by Paul. Looking forward to that!
- Adamson
Photo: Daily Dispatch Newspaper, 5th May 1941, Public Domain
https://picryl.com/media/wartime-damage-to-the-futurist-cinema-left-and-scala-cinema-right-3827ef
Quotes:
1) In His Own Write, by John Lennon (Jonathan Cape, London, 1964), back cover
2) The Beatles Book No. 59, June 1968 (Beat Publications, Ltd., London), p. 25.
3) John Lennon 4Ever, by Conrad Snell (Crown Summit Books, USA, 1981), p. 6.
4) The Beatles, by Hunter Davies (W.W. Norton, London, 2009 ed.), p. xv.
5) Shout!, by Philip Norman (Fireside, New York, 2005 edition), p. 3.
6) The Beatles and the Historians, by Erin Torkelson Weber (McFarland, 2016), p. 14.
7) The Beatles, by John Tobler (Exeter Books, New York, 1984), p. 10.