The Winslow Boy by Terence Rattigan is based on a famous legal case, just before the outbreak of the First World War, involving a young naval cadet, George Archer Shee, falsely accused of stealing a postal order from another cadet and punished without any right of appeal.

Born on the 6^th May 1895, George was the youngest son of Lt. Col. Sir Martin Archer Shee MP, who fought for his son’s innocence by engaging the services of one of England’s greatest barristers, Sir Edward Carson. The case was discussed in the House of Commons.  Eventually George was vindicated at a trial in the HIgh Court in 1910. At the onset of the war in 1914, George joined the 5th Staffordshire Regiment as a Lieutenant. He was killed on the 31^st October 1914 at Ypres, France.

Rattigan uses this true story to create a play that shows us the life of an English upper-middle class family caught up in a fast changing world.

No one party has a monopoly of concern for individual liberty. On that issue all parties are united.  –Catherine

I don’t think so. Only some people from all parties. – Sir Robert