Julie Andrews's mother was born Barbara Ward Morris, in 1910, and married Ted Wells (a teacher of metalwork and woodwork) in 1932. Her daughter was born three years later and named Julia Elizabeth Wells. Barbara and Ted separated and divorced soon after the beginning of the Second World War; Julia lived initially with her father and brother in Surrey, but was sent in 1940 to live with her mother and "stepfather", Ted Andrews. Barbara and Ted Andrews, who were not married at this time, were living in somewhat straitened circumstances in "a bad slum area of London"; but they were involved with ENSA, entertaining troops, and Wells believed that this would help with the development of Julia's undoubted talents.
Barbara married Ted Andrews in 1943, and by the end of the war the couple had begun to meet with some success in their stage careers and were able to move to Andrews's home town of Hersham, Surrey. Julie was performing alongside them by this time, and she made her professional debut at the London Hippodrome in 1947 – a few weeks after her 12th birthday.
It wasn't until 1950 that Julie Andrews learnt of her true parentage, and it was only made public in the 2008 memoir. She also revealed that she was obliged to fit a lock on her bedroom door to prevent her stepfather, a violent alcoholic, from attempting to join her in bed.
© Haydn Thompson 2021