Naturally, he took his girlfriend Yoko Ono with him. It was the first time the two women had met.
Mimi Smith lived in a bungalow called Harbour’s Edge, at 126 Panorama Road in Sandbanks, Poole. Lennon bought the house for her in 1965 for £25,000, and she lived there until her death in 1992. The house was since sold and later demolished.
"He came in all bright and breezy—typical John—and she followed behind," Mimi later recalled. "I took one look at her and thought, 'My God, what is that?'
"Well, I didn't like the look of her right from the start. She had long black hair, all over the place, and she was small—she looked just like a dwarf to me. I told John what I felt while she was outside, looking across the bay. I said to him, 'Who's the poison dwarf, John?'"
Lennon replied, "It's Yoko," and Mimi asked her what she did for a living. "She said, 'I'm an artist,'" Mimi later recalled. "I said, 'That's very funny, I've never heard of you!'"
Mimi also reminded John about the Duke of Windsor, the former King Edward VIII, who, after marrying Mrs Wallis Simpson, "lost his popularity, and John, you'd better know that."
"He laughed it off," she later recalled, "but he knew I didn't like her and he knew I was a good judge of character…"
Aunt’s letter reveals John Lennon ‘bubbling over with excitement’ at UK return.
“He phoned the night before, witty, funny, bubbling over with excitement, coming over very soon. Couldn’t wait to see me. So I’m glad of that. If I’m in London, I’ll get in touch with you. Kind thoughts to you too. Mimi.”
Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn said: “Mimi’s letter provides solid confirmation that, but for his murder, Lennon would have returned to Britain during 1981 for the first time in 10 years, this knowledge supporting other indications he was considering a concert tour.
After John left the UK for good on August 1971, he never returned to the UK again. The main reason he didn’t come back was due to green card problems (the American permit which allows a foreign national to live and work permanently in the US). John struggled to obtain a green card and while that was on-going, if he was to leave the US he would have risked being refused reentry when he came back, so for several years John couldn’t leave for that reason.
John obtained a Green Card on 27th July 1976. By this point John was settled in New York and his son, Sean had been born. With the Green Card he was free to leave American and would be allowed to return.
