Basil Bartlett

Who was Basil Bartlett?

Sir Basil Hardington Bartlett, 2nd Baronet was an actor, screenwriter and writer, and in the 1950s the head of the BBC's script department. In June 1921, at the age of 16, he became the second Baronet Bartlett of Hardington Mandeville, when he inherited the title after his grandfather, the building contractor Herbert Bartlett, as his father had died the year before.

He was educated at Repton School in Repton, Derbyshire, before continuing to Corpus Christi College at Cambridge University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts.

Having started as a stage actor in the 1930s, he joined the British Army at the outbreak of World War II, and served as a captain during the retreat to Dunkirk in 1940. He was mentioned in despatches and wounded during the retreat. He published My First War: An Army Officer's Journal for May 1940, Through Belgium to Dunkirk. During his convalescence he worked as screenwriter of the war films The Next of Kin, Secret Mission and They Met in the Dark before joining the Intelligence Corps, where he gained the rank of lieutenant colonel in charge of the kinematographic group of 21st Army Group.