Rest in Peace Stuart

Photographed by Astrid Kirchherr

Stuart Fergusson Victor Sutcliffe

June 23, 1940 - April 10, 1962

Cynthia met Stuart at Liverpool College of Art when they started in 1956 as classmates and became friends.

“Cynthia and Stuart got on much better, and Cynthia has told me many times how people couldn't help being aware of Stuart; she said he could always be found at work, always sketching something. She said it was clear to everyone that art was his whole life. By the time Cynthia began going out with John, they were both good friends of my brother. When John was difficult with either of them, they also had each other; Cynthia said she was so close to Stuart she instinctively turned to him and he her when John’s moods became too difficult to cope with alone. She also emphasized that John and Stuart had a remarkable affinity, each transmitting his own particular talents to the other.”

Pauline Sutcliffe

Stuart would encourage and help John with his art work. Cynthia would be in the corner, watching (and maybe doing her own work!). John moved in with Stuart and his roommate and friend Rod Murray.

“He was very spotty with horn-rimmed glasses and, just like John's, they were taped up at the edges. As a student, he was precisely the opposite of John, because he was working himself to death, totally dedicated. He wasn't eating properly and didn't have much to do with girls. His work was all-important to him. John needed Stuart really badly. He was going down the wrong road with these two characters, Tony Carricker and Geoff Mohammed, and he probably realized it because John wasn't stupid… Stuart was great fun in art and their minds were right for each other. John obviously looked up to him, and he was bringing John out as an artist.”

Cynthia, 1985

Stuart did have girlfriends in college: Susan Williams and Veronica Johnson. He was with Veronica by 1960 when they went to see Gene Vincent in concert with John, Cynthia, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison. Stuart briefly dated Susan but he left for Hamburg before their relationship grew to the steady phase; they remained friends and Stuart wrote to Susan often.

“He didn't work with us. We were in different departments. But he was the star student in Liverpool College of Art. And everywhere you went, if you went into Life class, there would be drawings or sketches by Stuart. He was a real star pupil. So, we were always influenced and always bumping into each other. Sort of not a lot and not very close friends in the beginning and then John and Stuart suddenly struck up this very bizarre friendship, because Stuart was so unlike John. I think John was desperate for some normality, or, I don't know, something straight in his life because he’s just lost his mother and his history is well known with his father and mother, his mother dying, and his father leaving him. I think there was some stability in Stuart and myself at the time.”

Cynthia

“I loved Stuart. He was really lovely. He was a good friend,a really good friend.”

Cynthia

“Stuart will always have a special corner in my heart. A sensitive, caring young man, he was my friend and supportive ally on many occasions. His talent was outstanding and, thank God, will endure as his memory endures me. His life was cruelly cut short but the legacy he left behind was his work- and his enthusiasm for life, truth, and love.”

Cynthia

While John was in Hamburg, Cynthia went to the funeral with Astrid. When he returned, John and Cynthia visited the Sutcliffe family.