Alfred Drayton (Alfred Varick); Robertson Hare

1 portrait by Angus McBean

Angus McBean Photograph. © Harvard Theatre Collection, Harvard University.

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Alfred Drayton (Alfred Varick); Robertson Hare

by Angus McBean
bromide print, 1938
9 3/8 in. x 7 1/2 in. (238 mm x 191 mm)
Purchased, 2001
Primary Collection
NPG P919

Sittersback to top

Artistback to top

  • Angus McBean (1904-1990), Photographer. Artist or producer associated with 283 portraits, Sitter in 79 portraits.

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  • Pepper, Terence, Angus McBean Portraits, 2006 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 5 July to 22 October 2006), p. 48 Read entry

    Robertson Hare made his professional debut in 1911 and continued performing into the 1970s, appearing as the archdeacon in the popular television comedy series All Gas and Gaiters. Long before this, Hare had been celebrated for his role in the series of twelve successive farces staged at the Aldwych Theatre between 1924 and 1933, followed by twenty more at the Strand Theatre between 1933 and 1960. He was frequently partnered both in the cinema and on stage by the equally talented Alfred Drayton. This elaborate tableau, using the sand from previous set-ups with the addition of an ostrich and eggs, was taken during the Strand Theatre run of Banana Ridge, the first farce written for them by Ben Travers.

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Events of 1938back to top

Current affairs

Britain pursues its policy of appeasement. At the Munich Agreement, Britain, France and Italy agreed to allow Hitler to seize the Sudetenland area of Czechoslovakia. The agreement was seen at the time as a triumph for peace, with Neville Chamberlain returning home brandishing the paper agreement and saying 'peace for our time.' Within six months Germany had occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia.

Art and science

Graham Greene publishes Brighton Rock. The novel follows the descent of Pinky, a teenage gang leader in Brighton's criminal underworld. The book examines the criminal mind and explores the themes of morality and sin - recurrent concerns for the Roman Catholic Author.
Glasgow hosts the Empire Exhibition; an £11 million celebration of the British Empire visited by 13 million people.

International

In its pursuit of 'Lebensraum' (living space), Germany annexes Austria and parts of Czechoslovakia with little opposition from the League of Nations. At home, the Nazis continued their escalating persecution of the Jews with 'Kristallnacht' (the Night of Broken Glass), attacking Jewish homes, shops, businesses and synagogues, and taking Jewish men to concentration camps.

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