School, A Job & World War I
Rathbone was educated at Repton School in Repton, Derbyshire and was employed by the Liverpool and Globe Insurance Companies.
At the end of 1915 he was conscripted via the Derby Scheme into the British Army as a Private with the London Scottish Regiment, thereby joining a regiment that also counted in its ranks his future professional acting contemporaries Claude Rains, Herbert Marshall and Ronald Colman at different points thru the conflict. After basic training with the London Scots in early 1916 he received a commission as a lieutenant in the Liverpool Scottish, 2nd Battalion, where he served as an intelligence officer and eventually attained the rank of captain. During the war, Rathbone displayed a penchant for disguise (a skill which he coincidentally shared with what would become perhaps his most memorable character, Sherlock Holmes), when on one occasion, in order to have better visibility, Rathbone convinced his superiors to allow him to scout enemy positions during daylight hours instead of during the night, as was the usual practice in order to minimize the chance of detection by the enemy. Rathbone completed the mission successfully through his skillful use of camouflage, which allowed him to escape detection by the enemy. In September 1918, he was awarded the Military Cross. His younger brother, John, fell in action during the war.
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