Several weeks after George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Pete Best and John Lennon had returned to England from Germany, Stuart Sutcliffe flew back on this day.
Harrison had been deported on 21 November, followed by McCartney and Best nine days later. Lennon travelled back alone on 10 December, while Sutcliffe went into temporary hiding with Astrid Kirchherr in Hamburg.
Sutcliffe knew he couldn’t stay indefinitely after his bandmates had been deported, and on this day he flew back to Liverpool. Kirchherr bought him an aeroplane ticket as he was suffering from tonsillitis and she didn’t want him to travel by ferry.
Page last updated: 28 December 2012