The Winslow Boy is a play by Terence Rattigan that is based on the real-life infamous incident involving George Archer-Shee in the early part of the Twentieth century. Archer-Shee was a young Royal Naval cadet who was accused of stealing a five shilling postal order. The case went all the way to the High Court of Justice in 1910, where Archer-Shee was defended y Sir Edward Carson, a politician and barrister who managed to get an acquittal despite overwhelming odds. The cadet's family were also paid compensation. Archer-Shee went on to receive a commission to fight in the army and was killed in action at the first Battle of Ypres, on October 31, 1914.
The Winslow Boy re-tells the story of the case, with a young man named Winslow as the protagonist. The story is told from Winslow's father's perspective, getting his son's name cleared was not important just for the young man accused, but for the whole family as well; at the time, having a criminal in the family would mean that the entire family would be ostracized.
The play premiered in 1946, in London, and was directed by Glen Byam Shaw, a renowned actor and director, and one of the closest friends of Sir John Gielgud, who is widely considered to be English theatrical royalty. It premiered on Broadway a year later.
In 1945, the play was adapted for the big screen and starred several of the actors who had appeared in the stage version; in 1999 a second movie was made, directed by David Mamet, and starring Nigel Hawthorne and Jeremy Northam. A television adaptation starred Emma Thompson and Gordon Jackson.
Sir Terence Rattigan was one of England's most prestigious and revered playwright; his plays were predominantly set in the same upper class world that he came from himself. After graduating from Oxford University, he was quickly successful with his play French Without Tears, which was set in a "crammer" school that trained students hard to meet specific academic goals, most usually when they were falling behind. Rattigan was the bright young thing of playwrighting until the war years when he fell out of favor somewhat; the public seemed to prefer the new "kitchen sink dramas" and raw emotions of playwrights like John Osborne who was far more challenging to their sensibilities. Rattigan continued to write with his trademark upper class emotional reserve and was both hurt and offended by the sudden public offense taken by it; he said he was always writing with his upper middle class Aunt Edna in mind, and therefore it was her sensibilities he wanted to appeal to when writing a play.
Rattigan passed away in 1977, whilst on vacation in Bermuda.
