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12.56am
10 December 2014
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John and Paul went off to Paris after the former had been given £100 for his birthday by a relative who was a dentist in Edinburgh, Scotland.
£100 was a huge sum of money to give as a present back then. Do we know who the dentist was, and what was his relationship to John?
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1 May 2011
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From 'Many Years From Now'
On 2 July 1961, the Beatles returned to Liverpool after thirteen exhausting weeks at the Top Ten. On John Lennon 's twenty-first birthday, 9 October 1961, his aunt in Edinburgh sent him £100, about two months' wages for the average worker in those days. John decided to use some of the money for a hitch-hiking trip to the Continent intending to go first to Paris then hitch on to Spain; so the day after playing the Village Hall, Knotty Ash, Liverpool, he and Paul got out on the road and stuck out their thumbs. They reached Dover and took the ferry to Calais, but hitching was almost impossible in France so they took the train to Paris. Paul had picked up quite a bit of German in Hamburg and had taken German and Spanish at school but had not studied French. John had taken a few months of French, but had not paid attention, so between them they barely spoke a word.
Here names her as John's Aunt Elizabeth.
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14 April 2010
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Hildy said
Do we know who the dentist was, and what was his relationship to John?
The dentist was Bert Sutherland. He was married to Julia 's sister Elizabeth - the family called her Mater. John visited them in Edinburgh during summer holidays as a schoolboy. Bert was Mater's second husband.
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6.13pm
10 December 2014
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Thanks for the responses, folks.
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Zig9.56pm
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20 August 2013
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The house where Aunt Mater, Uncle Burt, and cousins Stan and Leila lived was supposed to get a commemorative plaque telling about Lennon's time spent there.
The news from 2023
Murrayfield Community Council (MCC) have been running a programme of erecting plaques in their area to celebrate features and celebrities associated with their area, and over the past year, Community Councillor Pete Gregson has been working on a Lennon plaque.
Mr Gregson has recently secured the backing of the Abinger Gardens Residents Association to have the plaque attached to the wall on Ormidale Terrace, and it is currently in production with Capital Trophies, the local trophy engraver at Roseburn Terrace.
The proposed wording on the plaque is as follows: ‘John Lennon visited Ormidale Terrace regularly until the age of 17 in 1957 to visit his aunt and cousin; he often performed for the family on his aunt's piano. The cupboard under the stairs was where he penned Beatles song Rain , the 1966 B-side to Paperback Writer .‘His long summers here ranked among his happiest childhood memories, describing Edinburgh as one of his favourite cities, enjoying the Festival, the Tattoo and the rugby at Murrayfield. He even brought Yoko Ono here in 1969.’
Lennon’s visits to Edinburgh
Even at the height of his fame, when Beatlemania was in full bloom, Lennon continued to visit the Capital, and after a famous Beatles show at Edinburgh’s ABC cinema in 1964 he spent some time at his cousin Stan Parke’s house.Parkes was a good seven years older than Lennon and more of a big brother than a cousin to the future Beatle. He had swapped Liverpool for Edinburgh in 1949, when his mother (Lennon’s Aunt Mater) married local dentist, Burt Sutherland. The family lived at 15 Ormidale Terrace – a fairly typical-looking two-storey Edwardian house which still stands today. Lennon visited Ormidale Terrace regularly until the age of 17 in 1957.Parkes would travel down to Liverpool to accompany Lennon until he was deemed old enough by his Aunt Mimi to take the bus up on his own. Lennon’s raw musical talent was evident even then, and he would often perform for the family on Aunt Mater’s piano.
In the late 1970s, Lennon, now living in New York, wrote to his cousin Stan to express his desire to one day purchase 15 Ormidale Terrace – the place which spurred so many fond memories for him from almost a quarter of a century before. Sadly, it wasn’t to be, as on December 8, 1980, Lennon’s life came to an abrupt and tragic end.
However...now...
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/sc.....-fc68kdv7m
It has now emerged that the proposal has been ditched after [Community Councillor Pete] Gregson resigned from the community council, following a row with fellow council members over his comments on the war in Gaza.
He stepped down from the community council earlier this year and the plaque proposal has now been officially dropped.
Hamish Ross, the council secretary, said: “A new community council was formed following the 2025 election cycle. Local plaques are not on the agenda at the moment and the leading light behind this particular one stood down at the elections.”
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