In the November of 1965 Mary Elizabeth Smith and Mr and Mrs Brighton signed the contract at the offices of estate agents Rumsey & Rumsey 11 Haven Road Canford Hills Dorset for the purchase of Mimi’s new home, Harbours edge 126 Panorama Road Sandbanks Poole Dorset. John Lennon paid the purchase price of £25000 for his aunt Mimi or as he called her “Mimi”.
After accompanying the Beatles on their tour to New Zealand and Australia aunt Mimi returned home to Mendips 251 Menlove Avenue and tried to settle back down to life in the leafy suburbs of Woolton however by 1965 Mimi was most definitely tiring of the constant hordes of Beatles fans peering into her house and some even entering the property to steal mementos. So, John and his wife Cynthia decided enough was enough and that Aunt Mimi must leave Liverpool to retire to a quiet place where she could enjoy life in peaceful surroundings. Mimi who was nearing sixty remained self-reliant and energetic but the strain from the daily pressure from the Beatles fan was taking its toll on Mimi.
Mimi herself had always fancied living in one of the genteel South Coast resorts those that lay within easy reach of John’s home at Kenwood St George’s Hill and so the search began but for several months no locations or suitable properties could be found, Mimi would keep up correspondence with fans and one young girl by the name of Jane WIrgman and her sister Liz were regular correspondents. Mimi told Jane in the March of 1965 that she was avidly looking for properties and seen a lovely house called “The Moorings” at Bexhill but she didn’t want to live in Bexhill and told Jane that the next places to view would be around Worthing, Hove and Brighton. Mimi was to have second thoughts on the property at Bexhill but when the surveyors report landed through the post the property was riddled with woodworm and her next location to view was Bournemouth.
After reading a couple of such letters written to the fans, I have started to see another side to Mimi, and she is showing characteristics of kindness, wittiness, loving and caring. Mimi speaks well of John’s half-sisters and in the final paragraph of one of the letters she even has Julia to stay.
“Have a nice holiday. John’s half-sister Julia is coming tomorrow. She’s working like mad on A Levels. She’s 18, is taking Russian as an extra, and not interested in the Beatles, much to John’s annoyance, and he’s not interested in her Russian—so— Bye to you and love Mimi”. Letter written to Jane WIrgman in 1965.
Jane WIrgman was born in 1951 at Pancras London and worked for a company called Evington Ltd in which she was a director and resigned in 2018. The company was based at 8 Cadogan Road (Evington Buildings) Cromer Norwich and presumably the company took its name from the buildings and parkland behind it. If anyone has more information on Mimi’s friend Jane who loved both Mimi and John Lennon, then i would be most interested.
So consequently, John and Cynthia took Mimi to the Bournemouth area in the county of Dorset, and they viewed several properties and according to John, Mimi was very grumpy and certainly not in the mood for looking for her new home. Let’s think about it though! Mimi was leaving the only home she had known and loved, and in an interview many years later Mimi was quoted to say, “I’m Liverpool and John were Liverpool”. She was sincerely going to miss her little home at Mendips and all its memories whether they be happy or sad.
Despite Mimi’s grumpiness that day John and Cynthia finally found her a home in the affluent neighbourhood of Poole Dorset known as Sandbanks. Sandbanks may not have been the haunt of footballers and pop stars that it is today but when John purchased the waterside home for his aunt in 1965, Sandbanks was already an exclusive address. John Lennon shelled out £25000 for Harbours Edge, a six bedroomed semi bungalow at 126 Panorama Road. Mimi loved her new home, and the contract was signed in November 1965. When Mimi moved to Poole, she brought some of her furniture with her and gave some away in Liverpool and then settled in at Harbours Edge.
Rumours soon sprang around Sandbanks that a Beatle had bought a house in the neighbourhood and the Brighton’s from Harbours Edge were heartily sick of the whole thing and were forced to tell the Evening Echo and they hotly denied that they had sold to anyone from the Beatles however on the 9th of September 1965 the new resident was revealed. The selling agents Rumsey & Rumsey described Mimi as ‘a very pleasant lady of quiet disposition who wanted an easily run place with seclusion’.
After Mimi moved in her nephew had a balcony made with a white painted wrought iron balustrade of seven hearts from which his aunt could sit and watch the boats go by a far cry from the hustle and bustle of the busy Menlove Avenue.
Mimi settled in at her new home and John, Cynthia and their son Julian were frequent visitors with John often found relaxing on the beach, taking the ferry over to Studland or sailing down the river Frome to nearby Wareham with his friend Peter Sandeman. Mimi had befriended a lady nearby who was a landlady to Peter Sandeman and in conversation mentioned to Mimi that Peter had a boat, and a friendship enfolded between the great John Lennon and Peter Sandeman.
Peter Kenneth Charles Sandeman was born on the 20th of December 1936 in Mumbai, India and at the age of five months old sailed from Pakistan on the “City of Benares” arriving on the 28th of June 1937 at the port of Liverpool, three years before John Lennon was born and two years before Aunt Mimi married George T Smith! Several photographs were taken in the summer of 1967 with John, Cynthia, Peter and his fiancée Pamela A Dennis plus a friend of Mimi’s and these photos were thought to have been taken at Mendips however the proof of these photos taken elsewhere came to light about three years ago. The location of the photos has been identified as on Salterns Way, Lilliput, Sandbanks approximately fifteen minutes from Harbours Edge. Peter married Pamela, who was a massive Beatles fan, in October 1967 at Croydon and they eventually settled in Surrey. Peter talked of great times with John and the boat and described Mimi as a great lady who obviously doted on her famous nephew. Many years later Peter decided to sell all his private collection of photos with John to raise monies in aid of treatment for his daughter. Peter Sandeman was widowed on the 20th of January 2001, and he died on the 26th of June 2014 at his home in Surrey and both were laid to rest at Nutfield Cemetery Surrey. Peter believed that the first line of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds “Picture yourself in a boat on a river” came from the happy times him and John spent on his boat on the river. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds released on the 26th of May 1967 and from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Mimi loved her new home and family were known to stay with her at Harbours Edge. David Birch the son of Mimi’s youngest sibling Harriet stayed for about a year around 1968 to study Computer Science at Bournemouth. There were many other family visitors and although Mimi had moved some distance from Liverpool there was no shortage of family and friends including Mimi’s other nephew Michael (her sister Annes son) and Leila, David’s sister. One of Mimi’s friends Kathy Burns a Beatles fan from the USA who began the “Cyn Lennon Beatle Club” was in correspondence with Mimi from 1966 and finally met her in October 1973. The next twenty-two years Kathy shared frequent conversations with Mimi whether they were through the numerous letters she wrote, phone calls she made or when Kathy stayed at Harbours Edge the all-night gossip sessions in Mimi’s kitchen over tea and cigarettes. In 2014 Kathy Burns published a fascinating book on Aunt Mimi and it’s well worth reading and is titled “The Guitar’s All Right as a Hobby, John”.
Another member of Mimi’s family that lived with her was Jacqui Dykins who stayed with her aunt but then when she became pregnant left, but later appeared for the second time when she was pregnant for the second time. Mimi’s niece Jacqui visited her aunt on occasional weekends during Mimi’s final years and they would spend time walking along the beach and presumably Mimi paying her fare to visit from Liverpool.
John continued to visit Mimi even when he had met Yoko Ono, but it is thought he never returned to the UK once he left with Yoko for New York in 1971 however, after his death in 1980 Mimi said he had made a secret visit. I guess we will never know! According to David Stark, who stayed with Mimi after Johns death, recalls Mimi revealing that John phoned her at home in Sandbanks every week and he did in fact make a secret visit. At around the time John and Yoko moved to New York, John was to instigate an interview with Mimi and reporter Mike Hennessy and photographer Tom Hanley, and they spent the best part of a day while she gave an interview at Harbours Edge. Both Mike and Tom were surprised to be welcomed by a very nice and generous old lady.
Mimi was to hear the terrible news of her John’s murder just like millions of Britons soon after she awoke on the 9th of December 1980, basically hearing his name and thinking that he had been up to no good. Then after hearing the phone ring just after seven in the morning, Mimi knew something was wrong and she was right as it was Yoko ringing with the tragic news. Mimi’s pain was even more acute for John had recently promised to visit so Mimi could meet his second son Sean. In the years that followed Mimi largely kept much to herself although enthusiastically kept up her correspondence with a handful of Beatles fans.
Mimi had a handful of friends in Sandbanks and one person that remembers her well was John Clarke who ran the Haven Ferry Shop and was still running it up until 2012. John Clarke took over the shop from a Mr Howard and strangely enough although no relation it was managed by Raymond Frank Clarke until about 1971. Mimi was a regular customer at the Haven Ferry Shop and John remembers her buying bread to feed the birds as Mimi simply used to love watching the squirrels and birds that were in abundance around Sandbanks. Mimi would have possibly been privy to the red squirrels although the remnant population is mainly confined to the nearby Brownsea and Furzey Islands.
Another man who remembers Mimi was Tony O’Hara who was only thirteen when he first met her. Tony got his first taste of a working life as an eleven-year-old in 1968, helping his stepfather on the distinctive green and beige vans of the Malmesbury & Parsons Dairy Co. The dairy was originally based at 143 &145 Christchurch Road Boscombe but had other branches in many of the surrounding towns. Tony describes Mimi as very dignified and friendly and not at all snobby, but he says there was nothing low about her either. Tony says when he was seventeen Mimi would tease him as he wore glasses just like John and when he informed Mimi that he was growing his hair long, coincidental of course, Mimi told him you will look like John soon. The Sandbanks that Tony knew was inhabited with plenty of celebrities and one such pair that shared a house on the very same road as Mimi at 41 Panorama Road was Mike and Bernie Winters, staying there whilst playing the Bournemouth summer season in 1971. The Beatles had already played with Mike and Bernie Winters and Chita Rivera at the Blackpool ABC on the 19th of July 1964. You must wonder if Mimi was ever invited to such residences or would she see Bernie Winter’s dog taking itself off for a walk on Panorama Road in the morning. Incidentally my late father Dr Bryan Jones was introduced to the proprietor Jack Edge of the Davenport Theatre Stockport in the mid-sixties which ultimately led us as a family, becoming lifelong friends of Jack. This meant we were privy to hanging out behind stage during the pantomime season and consequently meeting up with many celebrities and Mike and Bernie Winters were no exception when they played pantomime “Babes in the Wood” in 1970 just before their summer season in Bournemouth the following year.
The years passed by for Mimi and in 1983, John’s first-born Julian lived with Mimi for a brief time and Mimi saw Sean Lennon for the first time in !984. Mimi discovered that John had never transferred Harbours Edge into her name and hence leaving Yoko whom Mimi was not too fond of, taking over as Mimi’s landlady. John had given his aunt Mimi an allowance of £30 per week (equivalent to £700 in 2023) and presumably Yoko continued to care for her. Shortly after Johns death Mimi went to stay with her sister Annie in Liverpool and whether this visit was before or after Annie’s husband Sydney Cadwallader passed away on the 14th of March 1981, of that I am not sure. Yoko and Sean visited Mimi in 1984 and again she was staying with Annie. There is confusion as to the year Annie Georgina Cadwallader nee Stanley died as the ancestry sites document the date as December 1997 however historians relate the date as 1988. It is said that Mimi was the last sibling to die (1991) but according to the death certificate for Annie this cannot be correct and consequently meaning that Annie was the last to die and not Mimi.
So, by early 1990 Mimi’s health was failing and a Lynne Varcoe an auxiliary nurse and whose mother ran the Varcoe Nursing Agency, located in Poole was sent to care for Mimi Smith. Lynne’s mother was approached by a representative of Yoko Ono to supply an auxiliary nurse during the day to care for Mimi and Lynne who was working at the time as a Mathematics teacher was sent and this was a second job to supplement her own income. During the night caregivers from the Cheshire Trust looked after Mimi. To date in my research i can find no reference to a nursing agency under that name although the surname Varcoe appears in connections to a couple of businesses within the Dorset area and the Cheshire Trust eludes me also. Lynne talks of the years as she looked after Mimi as 1991-1992 however this must be incorrect as she died on the 6th of December 1991.
According to Lynne her mother found a big black cat that went by the name of Thomas for company during Mimi’s last year and he was from a local rescue centre and after Mimi’s death was rehoused by Lynne.
Lynne Varcoe’s full story can be found on the British Beatles Fan Club Website
Lynne Varcoe had worked at her mother’s agency from !982-1987 from then she took a volunteering post in Switzerland for a year working with the Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. Lynne then returned to Bournemouth where she became a Mathematics teacher from 1987-1993 and within the latter years took on the care of Mimi as a second income. After Mimi died, she obtained a nursing degree and then moved to West Virginia USA where she remained until 2016 looking after terminally ill patients. Lynne is now a Clinical Imaging Analyst at HCA Healthcare at the University of Sussex. Lynne was born in 1963 which would have made her twenty-seven at the time she cared for Mimi and quite a responsibility for a young girl looking after someone that was truly responsible for caring and the bringing up of one of the worlds famous pop stars and from Lynne’s humbling beginning, she too has worked hard to attain a valued career.
Mimi collapsed in the bathroom at her home Harbours Edge and died on Friday the 6th of December 1991, just two days before the eleventh anniversary of Johns murder and on the same date from when she received her last phone call from John. According to Lynne who was with Mimi when she passed away her last words were “Hello John”. Mimi’s funeral took place on the 12th of December at Poole crematorium and among the thirty mourners were Yoko Ono, Lennon’s son Sean and his former wife Cynthia. Poole Crematorium lies on the A349 between Poole and Wimborne. After the cremation service the mourners went for lunch at the Harbour Heights Hotel Haven Road Sandbanks and later that day Yoko placed Harbours Edge 126 Panorama Road for sale.
Harbours Edge was bought by property tycoon Geoff Kaye for £410,000 and then the following year it was bulldozed down after falling into disrepair and Mr Kaye spent a further £500,000 building a Californian style modern home, a million miles away from Mimi’s bungalow that she loved so much. In 2018 the home called “Imagine” was put up for sale but this time with Savills and with a price tag of 7.2 million pounds, although i think the price tag would have come as a bit of shock to the frugal Mimi.
So, these past five blogs have told the story of Mary Elizabeth Smith nee Stanley aka “Mimi” from my research. Mimi was born on the 24th of April 1906 to George Ernest and Annie Jane Stanley nee Millward in Toxteth Liverpool and was a girl that knew right from the beginning that she would lead a life with challenges and adventures. Mimi was the maternal aunt and parental guardian of the legendary musician John Lennon. Mimi began her life with humble beginnings but knew she would better herself and I hope i have been able to portray this throughout my blogs. Mimi always wanted the best for John but struggled to keep her jealousy under wrap of those others that were close to John throughout his life. Mimi was realistic and wasn’t to have her head turned by all this fame and like a lot of ancestors growing up in the early twentieth century were frugal with their belongings and money. I only must think of my own parents and grandparents to understand how she felt, and Mimi must have found it hard when her beloved John spent money, that beyond her wildest dreams she would never thought of anybody spending. Mimi certainly had been hypocritical throughout some of her life and the “House of Sin” and House of Correction” comes to mind but in her final days she admitted to her nurse Lynne that she had been indeed wicked at times and was frightened of death.
Mimi was a pet lover and loved her cats unconditionally. My late father who was a doctor often said that those who love pets and animals are often kind, compassionate and responsible people and in my opinion, Mimi boasted these qualities. Mimi was named after her maternal grandmother Mary Elizabeth Millward nee Morris who like Mimi was the strong matriarch of the family, the only difference Mimi never had any children of her own. She loved very few men, and her heart was broken by those that she did love.
Mimi was shaped by a world entirely different than that of her nephew or his followers but that didn’t make her any less of a fan and she loved John deeply and this love was returned. During the past month my research has led me to have a different understanding of this woman and her position in what was a very special time in history.
Rest In Peace Mary Elizabeth Smith aka Mimi and may you be reunited with your beloved John.
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