The sister of fifth Beatle Stuart Sutcliffe, has said that he was the "central driving force” behind the band. The statement comes as she prepares to put his personal possessions up for auction. Pauline Sutcliffe has dedicated her life to writing about her brother and collecting various related paraphernalia.
Sutcliffe was a founding member of the Quarrymen, who later became the Beatles, but he quit in 1961 before they hit the big time to pursue a career in art. Although he died of a brain haemorrhage that year (aged 21) he was credited with giving the group its distinctive image.
A large collection of the memorabilia gathered by Miss Sutcliffe will go up for auction at Bonham's auction house on 29 Jul.
The Auction will include his birth certificate (expected to fetch £8,000), exam certificates from his time at the Liverpool College of Art, where he met John Lennon, sketches, photographs and letters to his family and girlfriend Astrid Kirchherr, who he lived with in Hamburg, Germany.