A Beautifull Story

Actress Carey Mulligan tells how Sir Paul McCartney’s mum delivered her dad


Jan 26 2010 by Vicki Kellaway, Liverpool Echo
A BAFTA nominated actress wants to meet Sir Paul McCartney - because his midwife mum delivered her dad.


Star-of-the-moment Carey Mulligan is busy fighting Hollywood greats Meryl Streep and Audrey Tautou in the race for the Bafta’s Best Actress gong.

But the heroine of An Education admitted she had something else on her mind when she attended the Golden Globes bash in Los Angeles.

Her dad is from Liverpool and she said he was delivered at Walton Hospital by Sir Paul’s mum.

The 24-year-old desperately wanted to meet the ex-Beatle, a fellow guest at the glittering ceremony.

She said she wanted to share with him how his mum, Mary, delivered her dad, Stephen, during her 10 years at the Rice Lane hospital’s maternity unit.

Mrs McCartney trained at Alder Hey before moving to Walton Hospital, where she was eventually promoted to ward Sister.

She later became a domiciliary health visitor and midwife.

Sir Paul once said his earliest memory was seeing her cycle away in the snow when she was needed to deliver a baby at someone’s home.

Carey spoke to reporters on the red carpet at the Screen Actor’s Guild Awards.
She said: “I saw Sir Paul McCartney at the Golden Globes and that made me go ‘Oh My God’ because my dad was delivered by his mum, he’s originally from Liverpool.

“I just wanted to go and tell him that.”

Mr Mulligan later left Liverpool to move to London where his actress daughter was born.

The whole family, including Carey’s Welsh mum Nano and her brother Owain, moved to Germany when she was three.

She later worked as a barmaid before landing roles alongside Keira Knightley in Pride and Prejudice and in the BBC series Bleak House.
But her acclaimed turn as 16-year-old Jenny in the 1960s-set An Education is her breakthrough.

Carey’s dad was one of thousands of babies safely delivered by Mrs McCartney at Walton.

She returned to give birth to both her sons there – James Paul in 1942 and Peter Michael in 1944.

Mrs McCartney died in 1956 when the boys were just 14 and 12.
Sir Paul reportedly wrote Let It Be after his mum appeared to him in a dream “speaking words of wisdom”.
Musician and photographer Mike McCartney, who formed The Scaffold, used a picture of his mum on his first album, Woman, in 1972.


FromThe Liverpool echo