Peter Harrison

Jul 23 2007 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

HE WAS gardener to a god. Well, some people thought he was a god, but to the gardener he was just the little brother who needed a helping hand.

And he had been a loyal little brother, even though he had done so well in life.

In fact, George Harrison was always close to his family, finding security in those roots when crazy strangers were screaming at him.

He also remembered that it was with his brother Peter and their friend, Arthur Kelly, that he first performed as a 13-year-old in their skiffle group, the Rebels. One day George was very upset when he accidentally broke his Egmond guitar. Money was short, but Peter was able to mend it.

They were a happy family – dad Harold, a bus driver, mum Louise, young Harry and young Louise, Peter and George.

But by September 1963, there had been a big change in fortunes. George’s group, the Beatles, were the biggest in England. The Rebels were just a memory and Peter was working as a panel-beater.

It was then that sister Louise, who had emigrated to the USA nine years earlier, invited Peter and George to come over. They touched down at St Louis airport, Missouri.

The Beatles were still unknown in America and George was able to walk about normally, something he really enjoyed. One day he jammed with a local group called the Four Vests. One of their players, who had something of the prophet about him, thought George was very promising.

The brothers returned home. In February the following year, the Beatles arrived in America to a rapturous reception. Life changed.

Peter married his childhood sweetheart and they settled in Penketh, near Warrington. But in 1974, after the Beatles had split, George asked Harry and Peter if they would work for him as gardener and groundsman in his Friar Park estate in Henley, Oxfordshire. It was a long way from their childhood terrace in Arnold Grove, Wavertree, Liverpool.

George loved the big garden. But in 1999 he was attacked in his home by a knife-wielding intruder. With the help of his tiny wife Olivia, he managed to beat him off.

But in 2001 George died from cancer. Peter retired from the estate in 2005. His life was also ended by cancer.

Peter Harrison, gardener, musician and panel-beater,born July 20, 1940; died June 1, 2007.