Julie Andrews

Early life and vocal training[edit]

Julia Elizabeth Wells^[8] was born on 1 October 1935 in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England.^[9][10] Her mother, Barbara Ward Wells (née Morris; 25 July 1910^[11]–1984) was born in Chertsey^[12] and married Edward Charles "Ted" Wells (1908–1990), a teacher of metalwork and woodwork, in 1932.^[13] Andrews was conceived as a result of an affair her mother had with a family friend. Andrews learned of her true parentage from her mother in 1950,^[14][15] although it was not publicly disclosed until her 2008 autobiography.^[16]


With the outbreak of World War II, her parents went their separate ways and were soon divorced. Each remarried: Barbara to Ted Andrews, in 1943,^[17] and Ted Wells in 1944^[18] to Winifred Maud (Hyde) Birkhead, a war widow and former hairstylist at a war work factory that employed them both in Hinchley Wood, Surrey.^[14][15][19] Wells assisted with evacuating children to Surrey during the Blitz, while Andrews's mother joined her husband in entertaining the troops through the Entertainments National Service Association. Andrews lived briefly with Wells and her brother, John^[20] in Surrey. In 1940, Wells sent her to live with her mother and stepfather, who Wells thought would be better able to provide for his talented daughter's artistic training. While Andrews had been used to calling her stepfather "Uncle Ted", her mother suggested it would be more appropriate to refer to her stepfather as "Pop", while her father remained "Dad" or "Daddy" to her, a change which she disliked.^[21] The Andrews family was "very poor" and "lived in a bad slum area of London" at the time, stating that the war "was a very black period in my life". According to Andrews, her stepfather was violent and an alcoholic.^[16] He twice tried to get into bed with his stepdaughter while drunk, resulting in Andrews fitting a lock on her door.^[16]


As the stage career of her mother and stepfather improved, they were able to afford better surroundings, first to Beckenham and then, as the war ended, back to the Andrews's hometown of Hersham. The family took up residence at the Old Meuse, in West Grove, Hersham, a house (since demolished) where Andrews's maternal grandmother had served as a maid.^[15] Andrews's stepfather sponsored lessons for her, first at the independent arts educational school Cone-Ripman School (previously ArtsEd, now Tring Park School for the Performing Arts) and thereafter with concert soprano and voice instructor Madame Lilian Stiles-Allen. Andrews said of Stiles-Allen, "She had an enormous influence on me", adding, "She was my third mother – I've got more mothers and fathers than anyone in the world". In her memoir Julie Andrews – My Star Pupil, Stiles-Allen records, "The range, accuracy and tone of Julie's voice amazed me ... she had possessed the rare gift of absolute pitch",^[22] though Andrews herself refutes this in her 2008 autobiography Home.^[14][23] According to Andrews, "Madame was sure that I could do Mozart and Rossini, but, to be honest, I never was".^[22]: 24 Of her own voice, she says, "I had a very pure, white, thin voice, a four-octave range – dogs would come from miles around."^[22]: 24 After Cone-Ripman School, Andrews continued her academic education at the nearby Woodbrook School, a local state school in Beckenham.^[24]