Terence Rattigan was a friend of Spike Milligan's junior officer, Lieutenant Tony Goldsmith, who was killed in the Battle of Longstop Hill, whilst on observation post duty. Rattigan wrote an obituary of his friend and sent it to "The Times". A copy of it is in ""Rommel?" "Gunner Who?"", one of Milligan's war memoirs. After the war, Rattigan alternated between comedies and dramas, establishing himself as a major playwright: the most famous of which were "The Winslow Boy" (1946), "The Browning Version" (1948), "The Deep Blue Sea" (1952), and "Separate Tables" (1954). He believed in understated emotions and craftsmanship, which was deemed
Terence Rattigan an elder brother, Brian. They were the grandsons of Sir William Henry Rattigan, a notable India-based jurist, and later a Liberal Unionist Member of Parliament for North-East Lanarkshire. His father was Frank Rattigan CMG, a diplomat whose exploits included an affair with Princess Elisabeth of Romania (future consort of King George II of Greece) which resulted in her having an abortion. Rattigan's birth certificate and his birth announcement in "The Times" indicate he was born on 9 June 1911. However, most reference books state that he was born the following day; Rattigan himself never publicly disputed this date. There is