Editing Basil Rathbone (section)

==Early life==
Rathbone was born in [[Johannesburg]], [[South African Republic]],<ref name="baptism">"South Africa, Church of the Province of South Africa, Parish Registers, 1801–2004," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVSH-SB15 : 16 August 2019), Philip St John Basil Rathbone, 26 March 1894; citing Baptism, Transvaal, South Africa, p. , William Cullen Library, Wits University, Johannesburg.</ref> to British parents. His mother, Anna Barbara (''née'' George), was a violinist, and his father, Edgar Philip Rathbone, was a mining engineer and scion of the [[Liverpool]] [[Rathbone family]]. He had two older half-brothers, Harold and Horace, as well as two younger siblings, Beatrice and John. Basil was the great-grandson of the noted Victorian philanthropist, [[William Rathbone V]], and thus a descendant of [[William Rathbone II]].{{Citation needed |date=February 2023}}

The Rathbones fled to Britain when Basil was three years old after his father was accused by the [[Boer]]s of being a spy following the [[Jameson Raid]]. Rathbone attended [[Repton School]] in [[Derbyshire]] from 1906 to 1910, where he excelled at sports and was given the nickname "Ratters" by schoolmates. Thereafter, he was briefly employed as an insurance clerk by the Liverpool and Globe Insurance Companies,<ref name="1911census">"England and Wales Census, 1911," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XWG3-B6W : 8 May 2019), Basil Philip St John Rathbone in household of Colin Forsyth Burn, Stoke Newington, London, England, United Kingdom; from "1911 England and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO RG 14, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey.</ref> to appease his father's wish for him to have a conventional career.<ref>[http://www.basilrathbone.net/biography/ basilrathbone.net] Retrieved 22 May 2018.</ref>

On 22 April 1911, Rathbone made his first appearance on stage at the Theatre Royal, [[Ipswich]], [[Suffolk]], as Hortensio in ''[[The Taming of the Shrew]]'', with his cousin [[Frank Benson (actor)|Sir Frank Benson]]'s No. 2 Company, under the direction of [[Henry Herbert (actor)|Henry Herbert]]. In October 1912, he went to the United States with Benson's company, playing roles such as Paris in ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'', Fenton in ''[[The Merry Wives of Windsor]]'', and Silvius in ''[[As You Like It]]''. Returning to Britain, he made his first appearance in London at the [[Savoy Theatre]] on 9 July 1914, as Finch in ''The Sin of David''. That December, he appeared at the [[Original Shaftesbury Theatre|Shaftesbury Theatre]] as the Dauphin in ''[[Henry V (play)|Henry V]]''. During 1915, he toured with Benson and appeared with him at London's Court Theatre in December as Lysander in ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]''.