Editing Alastair Sim (section)

==Early life==

Sim was born in [[Edinburgh]], the youngest child and second son of Alexander Sim, a ladies' tailor and clothier who served on several Edinburgh committees and was a school governor and [[Justice of the Peace]], and Isabella (née McIntyre).<ref name=dnb>Gilbert, Michael. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/31686 "Sim, Alastair George Bell (1900–1976)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, January 2011, retrieved 11 July 2014 {{ODNBsub}}</ref> His mother moved to Edinburgh as a teenager from [[Eigg]], one of the [[Small Isles]] in the [[Inner Hebrides|Hebrides]], and was a native [[Scottish Gaelic|Gaelic]] speaker.<ref>Simpson, p. 15</ref> The family lived above his father's shop at 96-98, [[A700 road|Lothian Road]];<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.alastairsim.net/biography/early_years.htm | title=Early Years }}</ref> later, improved finances allowed for a move to 73, Viewforth, in the wealthier [[Bruntsfield]] area of the city.<ref>Margaret Rutherford, Alistair Sim, eccentricity and the British character actor, Chris Wilson, Sheffield Hallam University, 2005, p. 11</ref><ref>Alastair Sim- the Real Belle of St Trinian's, Mark Simpson, History Press, 2011, pp. 14-16</ref> Sim was educated at Bruntsfield Primary school, and received his secondary education at [[James Gillespie's High School]] and [[George Heriot's School]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/spellbinding-times-at-heriot-s-1-1215177 |title=Spellbinding times at Heriot's |date=13 August 2009 |newspaper=[[The Scotsman]]}}</ref> He worked—probably part time{{#tag:ref|In her memoirs, Sim's widow, [[Naomi Sim|Naomi]], wrote that he worked after leaving school at fourteen; in his 2011 biography of Sim, Mark Simpson questions this, observing that Sim took his Intermediate School Certificate at the age of sixteen|group= n}}—in his father's shop and then for the men's outfitters [[Gieves & Hawkes|Gieve's]], displaying no talent for the retail trade.{{Citation needed|date=November 2019}} In 1918 he was admitted to the [[University of Edinburgh]] to study analytical chemistry, but was called up for army training.<ref name=dnb/>

After the end of the [[First World War]] in November 1918, Sim was released from military service. On his return home, he told his family that he did not intend to resume his studies at the university but instead would become an actor.<ref>Simpson, p. 19</ref> His announcement was so badly received that he left the parental home and spent about a year in the [[Scottish Highlands]] with a group of itinerant jobbing workers.<ref name=bfi>Brooke, Michael. "The actors: Alastair Sim – Funny Peculiar", ''Sight and Sound'', 15.7, [[British Film Institute]], July 2005, pp. 34–36</ref> Returning to Edinburgh, he took a post in the burgh assessor's office. In his spare time, he joined poetry reading classes, winning the gold medal for verse speaking at the Edinburgh Music Festival. This led to his engagement to teach [[elocution]] at a further education college in [[Dalry, Edinburgh|Dalry]], Edinburgh. He held this post from 1922 to 1924. After taking an advanced training course in his subject, in 1925 he successfully applied to the University of Edinburgh for the post of Fulton Lecturer in Elocution, which he held for five years.<ref name=dnb/>

While maintaining his university position, Sim also taught private pupils and later founded and ran his own drama school for children in Edinburgh. This developed his skills as a director and occasional actor. One of his pupils, [[Naomi Sim|Naomi Merlith Plaskitt]], aged 12 when they met, became his wife six years later. The dramatist [[John Drinkwater (playwright)|John Drinkwater]] saw one of Sim's productions for the school and encouraged him to become a professional actor.<ref name=times>"Obituary: Mr Alastair Sim – Idiosyncratic comedian of stage and screen", ''The Times'', 21 August 1976, p. 14</ref> Through Drinkwater's influence, Sim was cast in his first professional production, ''[[Othello]]'' at the [[Savoy Theatre]], London, in 1930; he understudied the three principal male roles (played by [[Paul Robeson]], Maurice Browne and [[Ralph Richardson]]) and played the small role of the messenger.<ref name=dnb/><ref>[http://www.alastairsim.net/biography/annual_overview.htm "Biography – Annual Overview"], Alastair Sim, retrieved 11 July 2014</ref>