Eleanor Rigby: fact or fiction?

That question, which has bedeviled Beatles’ fans for decades, may be answered in part by a 1911 hospital payroll sheet to be auctioned in London today.

The document, sent by Paul McCartney in 1990 to the director of a music charity who had asked for funding, contains the signature of a scullery maid named “E. Rigby” who worked in a Liverpool hospital.

The director of the company auctioning the document believes the woman who signed the payroll is the same Eleanor Rigby buried in 1939 in a Liverpool graveyard next to the church where McCartney met the young John Lennon.

“I’ve spoken to the person who lived in the house where she used to live, and they’ve confirmed that the signature is the same signature of the person in the graveyard,” said Tom Owen of the Fame Bureau auction house, adding that the finding may contradict McCartney’s longtime assertion that the song was based on a made-up character.

“It’s intriguing that McCartney owned it because he says he created the song around a fictitious figure,” said Owen. “And yet, how did he have this document and why did he have it? When he was asked to donate money, he sent this.”

Interest is so high it’s estimated the document may fetch $750,000.

McCartney has said the song was not based on a real person but concedes he may have been subconsciously influenced by seeing the tombstone.