Margaret Barton
British actress
Margaret Ann Barton (born 27 May 1926) is a British retired actress. She is best known for her role in the 1945 David Lean film Brief Encounter in which she played Beryl Walters, a girl who works in the railway station cafe.
Early career
Barton began acting in the theatre at the age of 12. Because she was small for her age, during World War II she portrayed children and young women. At 17 she appeared in Pink String and Sealing Wax at the Duke of York's Theatre and remembered performing while doodlebugs flew overhead. While on the West End stage, she was spotted by David Lean and Noël Coward and cast for the part of Beryl in Brief Encounter. Her scenes were shot at Denham Film Studios, and for other scenes she was invited by Lean to watch from behind the camera.
Postwar
After the war, Barton continued acting on stage, in film, and for television. She married Raymond James; their son, Michael, died of cancer at the age of 30, and his parents set up the Michael James Music Trust in his memory. Raymond James died in 2016, aged 93.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Margaret Barton” is british actress. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Margaret, Barton and British, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “british actress” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6759169. VIAF identifies the subject as 120602172. The Library of Congress control number is no2010070211. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1926, 1945 and 2016.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Margaret Barton”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Margaret Barton primary sources, Margaret Barton archive and Margaret research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Margaret Barton”?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Margaret Barton” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.