Stuart Sutcliffe

Stuart Fergusson Victor Sutcliffe was born 23 June 1940 in Edinburgh and attended the Liverpool College of Art, where he met John Lennon. The two invented the name "Beetles" out of affection for Buddy Holly's Crickets and a taste for double meanings — Lennon respelled it "Beatals," then "The Beatles," riffing on beat. Sutcliffe played bass in the five-piece band and in Hamburg met photographer Astrid Kirchherr, to whom he became engaged. He left the group to enroll at the Hamburg College of Art, studying under Eduardo Paolozzi, who called him one of his best students; his paintings leaned towa…