'Honorary Beatle' - who 'ran away' to meet the band - to sell Fab Four memorabilia
A fan dubbed Britain’s first ‘Honorary Beatle’ after he ran away to meet the Fab Four is selling his precious band mementoes. Russell Jamieson was just four-years-old when he went to his first Beatles gig and even went missing from home while trying to find them - eventually being found by police in Walton Vale. The toddler cheekily told officers his name was ‘Russell Beatle’, a tale which got back to Lennon, McCartney and Co who wanted to meet him.
Russell became firm friends with the group, and would regularly visit Ringo Starr’s home. Now, the 56-year-old is selling a treasure trove of his previous Beatles souvenirs, keeping a pledge he made to his mum before she died in 1997. For auction is a leather jacket worn by four-year-old Russell as he watched the Beatles, a corduroy jacket similar to ones the band wore, papers from the Beatles Fan Club inviting him to be an Honorary Member and signatures from the foursome on the back of merchandise photos.
They are expected to fetch thousands of pounds when they go under the hammer at Omega Auctions at Penketh Business Park in Warrington on March 22. Russell, who lives in Port Sunlight, Wirral, told the ECHO: “My brother Dave, who’s now 75, was friends with the Beatles and was a roadie for Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. “We’ve held onto our Beatles stuff for a long time, but we made a promise to our mum, whose last request was to sell it all to make sure we were OK.
By: Luke Traynor
Source: The Liverpool Echo
