ED 534
Reference code
ED 534
Title
Letters from John Barton, at Eton 1942 - 1947
Level
File
Administrative / Biographical history
John Bernard Adie Barton was at Eton from 1942 to 1947 and was in H.K. Marsden’s and E.P. Hedley’s house. Barton played football, the Field Game (Eton’s traditional version of football), and even rowed, making it into the crew of the Monarch, the largest and most senior of Eton’s ceremonial boats. He drew and wrote well, winning the Holiday Drawing Competition in 1945, and the Richards English Essay Prize in 1946. Barton was an editor of The Chronicle, the school magazine, from 1947, and was an integral member of both the Shakespeare Society and the Eton Society (also known as Pop). He also began his theatrical career, directing a performance of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part I on 15th November 1947. It was the first school play to be performed since before the war, and was viewed with suspicion by the Head Master, but it changed the face of drama at Eton. Barton’s Exhibition (a grant, lesser than a scholarship) to Cambridge University is noted in The Chronicle in 1947. He went on to be Theatrical director and co-founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Date
1942 -1945
Extent & medium
9 letters
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Number 535 of 539 at this Level
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