Ringo Starr signed Christmas Card

An original Christmas Card which has been signed by Ringo Starr and his wife, Barbara Bach in blue ballpoint pen.

Ringo Starr has added the inscription “to terry, love and xxx” before and after his name The autograph dates to the 2000s 

Provenance: From the collection of Terry Doran

Terence James Doran (1939–2020) was a Liverpudlian car dealer who became one of the Beatles' closest inner-circle associates. He was an English luxury car dealer, pop music manager and music publishing executive, best known for his association with the Beatles. He came into their world through his friendship with manager Brian Epstein.

His link to the band began through cars. Working as a salesman at Hawthorne Motors in Warrington, Doran sold the first car owned by a member of the Beatles — a blue Ford Anglia — to George Harrison, the youngest member of the group. In exchange for the reasonable terms offered, Harrison agreed to pose with John Lennon and Paul McCartney and the car in an advertisement for Hawthorne, which appeared in Mersey Beat in July 1962. He then supplied the band with the Ford Thames van they used for early gigs. In the mid-1960s he co-founded the dealership Brydor Cars with Epstein — the name derived from their two names — supplying sportscars to many figures in the Swinging London era, including the Beatles and members of the Rolling Stones and the Moody Blues.
 
He also made a couple of small but memorable marks on the music itself. During the Sgt. Pepper sessions he joined Mal Evans and Neil Aspinall in contributing percussion to "Strawberry Fields Forever," and famously supplied Lennon with the missing verb "fill" in the "A Day in the Life" line "Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall." He is often cited as the "man from the motor trade" in "She's Leaving Home," although McCartney later denied the story.
When the Beatles formed Apple, Doran moved into the business side. In 1967 he became the manager of Apple Publishing, the first appointment in the Beatles' Apple Corps organisation, and he also managed the Apple artists Grapefruit and Mary Hopkin. His tenure wasn't without trouble — according to Peter Brown, his inexperience showed when he inadvertently signed over Harrison's US publishing interests to Terry Melcher, which Apple's Ron Kass had to negotiate back. 

His longest and closest association, though, was with George Harrison. He was a personal assistant to John Lennon and then to George Harrison, and throughout the 1970s he worked as Harrison's estate manager at Friar Park in Oxfordshire, assisting in restoring the property. He also worked in the London office of Harrison's Dark Horse Records label and was the link that brought Peter Frampton into Harrison's 1970 All Things Must Pass sessions. Pattie Boyd remembered him fondly, saying he was a major part of her life at Friar Park and very close to George, recalling how he loved the grounds and garden. 

Notably, Doran was one of the few of the band's inner circle never to betray their confidence by writing a tell-all, appearing at fan conventions, or talking about them endlessly in documentaries. Mark Lewisohn summed him up as a Scouse pal of Epstein, a mate to all the Beatles, and George's PA at Friar Park.

The card measures 14.8 x 10.5 cm

The condition of the card is very good + with some light creasing to the reverse