George Toogood Smith - Death

Death

Smith collapsed on a Sunday at home of a liver haemorrhage (aged 52) and was buried in the graveyard of St. Peter's Church, Woolton, in the Smith family grave.

At the time of Smith's death, the fourteen-year-old Lennon was visiting members of the Stanley family in Sango Bay, Durness, Scotland, and was not informed until he returned home. Lennon's first reaction was to laugh hysterically, but then to privately grieve and cry, as he later did after hearing about the death of his mother three years later, and the death of Stuart Sutcliffe (The Beatles' first bass player) which were all major factors in Lennon's early life. In the same year as Smith’s death the McCartney family moved to 20 Forthlin Road, which is only ¾ of a mile (1.2 km) from Mendips. Lennon would later meet Paul McCartney for the first time at St. Peter's Church, where Smith was buried.

After Smith's death, Lennon insisted on wearing a large overcoat that had belonged to Smith, and even though it became worn and threadbare, Lennon wore it throughout his art college years. Mimi never used the downstairs sitting rooms again after Smith's death (only using the breakfast room and the kitchen) and never replaced the furniture, which became old and faded. Lennon continued to live at Mendips (and also for a time with his first wife Cynthia Lennon) until his early 20s, before moving to London.

When Lennon was living in America he asked his half-sister, Julia Dykins, to send the clock that was previously in the living room at Mendips, which had been passed down through Smith's family, and was inscribed with the words, "George Smith, Woolton Tavern", onto a metal plate on the back. In Lennon's last published interview, he said: "This image of me being an orphan is garbage, because I was well protected by my auntie and uncle and they looked after me very well, thanks".