Who left The Beatles first?

Happy bunnies? The Beatles last photoshoot 22 August, 1969 By unknown, Fair use, 

Legally, The Beatles were an entity until the group was formally dissolved on 29 December 1974. 

Until that point John, Paul, George and Ringo were still technically Beatles. That said, from the summer of 1968 three of the four clearly had one eye on the exit. 

The unravelling

The death of Brian Epstein in August 1967 intensified internal band tension - see here. Within a year, The Beatles story became an Agatha Christie plot, with all four on manoeuvres.

Ringo briefly walked out in 1968, George did an even shorter flounce in January, 1969. John announced to all and sundry he wanted out after his Plastic Ono Band gig in Toronto in 1969.

John later claimed to have been persuaded to delay his departure by Paul, who was still desperate to keep the band together. But by this point, even Mr Beatle was lawyering up for the coming divorce.

In fact, it was McCartney who would be thought of as the man who ended The Beatles. His press release in April 1970, stating that he was no longer working with the group, was the de facto moment in which The Beatles were pronounced dead.

Before they were famous

The Beatles emerged out of The Quarry Men, a school group started by John Lennon. By 1960 the band had a fixed name and line up: John, George, Paul, Stu Suctliffe and Pete Best. Suctliffe, who helped name the group, has the strongest was the first to leave in 1961.

Why Stuart Suctliffe left The Beatles?