Above: Mimi at Harbour's Edge; and (below) in the lounge with John
Retired
policeman Clive Garland was on duty the night Beatlemania gripped Bournemouth
like a vice – 16 November 1963.
He was part of the squad detailed to escort The Beatles from Madeira Road police station to the Winter Gardens in a Black Maria police van.
Clive was simply doing his duty amid the mayhem that night - rubbing shoulders with hysterical teenagers
and bewildered pop stars was all in a night’s work.
Events
moved fast and as soon as the tidal wave of Beatlemania had broken on
Bournemouth, the next morning it was gone.
However, Clive
had not long joined the Bournemouth Borough Police Life Saving Team – and
before long he was to again enter the orbit of The Beatles.
“We trained
at Stokewood Road swimming baths every week and taught life saving in Schools throughout
the Borough,” he remembers.
“We would
train in the River Stour, at what was then Pontins holiday camp, and
Bryanston School for competitions all over the south of England.
“On a
couple of occasions in 1966 we were taken to Harbour’s Edge, the bungalow that
John Lennon bought for his aunt Mimi in Panorama Road. We swam off the steps in
Poole Harbour, which meant swimming constantly against the out-going tide, so as
not to be washed out to sea.
“PC George
Ferneyhough was our trainer. The team members included David Bradley, Bill
Stevenson, Peter Owen, Tom Morgan, Richard Thomas, Charlie Case, John Howes and
myself.
“Aunt Mimi
would bring out tea and biscuits after we had finished.”
:: For the full story of The Beatles at the Winter Gardens in Bournemouth and more about how Aunt Mimi came to live by the sea at Sandbanks, see Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth. Copies available to order here at the special price of £14.95.
