The identity of a nurse mentioned in the Beatles song 'Penny Lane' has been made public over forty years after the track was released.

Stan Williams, a former schoolfriend of John Lennon, identifies the nurse as Beth Davidson in a new book about growing up in Liverpool.

Williams said Lennon would have known Davidson from his childhood.

The lyrics to the song are: "Behind the shelter in the middle of the roundabout, the pretty nurse is selling poppies from the tray, and though she feels she's in a play, she is anyway."

According to Williams, a group of boys, including Lennon, saw Davidson selling poppies on the street dressed in a cadet nurse's uniform.

"In my mind's eye, I still like to visit that special October day in 1954 when Beth had her image trapped within the lens of Lennon's creative imagination,” Williams told the Telegraph.

Davidson died of cancer in the 1970s.

(by Jason Gregory)