The Winslow Boy

On the fourth day of the trial, the Solicitor General, Sir Rufus Isaacs, accepted that Archer-Shee was innocent, and ultimately the family was paid compensation.

An internal enquiry, conducted without notice to his family and without the benefit of representation, finds him guilty, and his father, Arthur Winslow, is "requested to withdraw" his son from the college (the formula of the day for expulsion).

This is no small matter, as, under English law, Admiralty decisions were official acts of the government, which could not be sued without its consent—traditionally expressed by the attorney general responding to a petition of right with the formula "Let Right be done".

The Winslows succeed in engaging the most highly sought-after barrister in England at the time, Sir Robert Morton, known also as a shrewd opposition Member of Parliament.

Catherine had expected Sir Robert to decline the case, or at best to treat it as a political football; instead, he is coolly matter-of-fact about having been persuaded of Ronnie's innocence by his responses to questioning (in fact, a form of cross-examination, to see how young Ronnie would hold up in court) in the presence of his family, and is shown mustering his political forces in the House of Commons on the Winslows' behalf with little concern for the cost to his faction.

Catherine remains unconvinced of Sir Robert's sincerity, perhaps not least because of his record of opposition to the cause of women's suffrage, but also due to his dispassionate manner in the midst of the Winslow family's financial sacrifices.

The costs of the suit and the publicity campaign have eaten up his older brother Dickie's Oxford tuition, and hence his chance at a career in the civil service, as well as Catherine's marriage settlement.

Her fiancé John Watherstone has broken off the engagement in the face of opposition from his father (an Army Colonel), forcing her to consider a sincere and well-intentioned offer of marriage from Desmond, whom she does not love.

In the play, Rattigan quotes from actual parliamentary debates and court transcripts but makes major changes to the characters and the timing of events.

The play's London premiere in 1946 featured Emlyn Williams, Mona Washbourne, Angela Baddeley, Kathleen Harrison, Frank Cellier, Jack Watling and Clive Morton.

[10] A 1999 film version, directed by David Mamet, starred Nigel Hawthorne as Arthur Winslow, Jeremy Northam as Morton, and Rebecca Pidgeon as Catherine.