George Archer-Shee for the play "The Winslow Boy" by Terence Rattigan which has twice been the basis of films. He was the son of Martin Archer-Shee and his second wife Helen Treloar. His father was a banker and grandson of the painter Sir Martin Archer Shee. His half-brother was Martin Archer-Shee. The actor Robert Bathurst is his great nephew. In January 1908 Archer-Shee became a cadet at the Royal Naval College, Osborne, at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. The college, which was part of the estate of the late Queen Victoria, educated and trained 14- to 16-year-olds in their first
Martin Archer Shee dramas in 1911. He also published two novels – "Oldcourt" (1829, in three volumes) and "Cecil Hyde" (1834). On the death of Sir Thomas Lawrence in 1830, Shee was chosen president of the Royal Academy in his stead and shortly afterwards received a knighthood. In 1831 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In an examination before the parliamentary committee of 1836 concerning the functions of the Royal Academy, he ably defended its rights. He continued to paint till 1845, when illness made him retire to Brighton. He was deputised for at the Academy by J. M. W.