Actor, famous for playing the title role in Worzel Gummidge and the Third Doctor in Doctor Who.
John ‘Jon’ Devon Roland Pertwee (1919-1996) was born on 7 July 1919, the younger son of Roland Pertwee (1885-1963) and Avice (nee Scholtz) (1891-1948) of 86, Drayton Gardens, Chelsea. Jon’s father was a playwright, screenwriter, director and actor, whose film scripts included Noel Coward’s The Vortex (1928) and The Ghoul (1933).
Jon’s elder brother Michael Pertwee (1916-1991) (School House 1930-1934) also became a playwright and screenwriter and in 1954 co-wrote with his father The Grove Family – the first soap opera on British television. Michael’s autobiography Name Dropping was published in 1974.
Jon and Michael’s father’s decision to send his sons to Sherborne may have been prompted by a visit he made to the School in May 1922 with the Arts League of Service (founded in 1919 to bring art and the ‘higher forms of entertainment’ to the masses). Together with Agnes Lawson and Hermione Baddeley, they performed a varied programme for the boys, opening with a short sketch ‘Riders of the Sea’ by J.M. Synge, followed by folk songs and part songs, and ending with ‘Early Birds’, a farce written by Roland Pertwee ‘which both actors and audience seemed thoroughly to enjoy.’
In his autobiography, Moon Boots and Dinner Suits (Elm Tree Books, 1984), Jon recalled his schooldays, saying ‘Not that I disliked school – I loathed it! Passionately!’, adding that his only achievement at the four schools he attended was that he was ‘beaten more often and more thoroughly than any of my fellow pupils, simply because I firmly, if painfully, refused to conform to the norm; and in my day, conformity was the rule…’
In May 1933, Jon left his prep school (Wellington House at Westgate-on-Sea in Kent) and joined his brother at Sherborne School, where he was placed in Abbeylands under housemaster M.B. Elderton. Unfortunately, being ‘a bit of a rebel’ and neither a scholar nor a games player, Jon did not have a happy time at Sherborne and left after five terms. However, as with all good actors, he would later draw upon his experiences in the characters he created.
While at Sherborne, Jon decided to learn the trumpet and received private lessons from assistant master and teacher of wind instruments Vernon House (1907-1994), who had been brought to Sherborne from Marlborough College to work up a School band. Mr House taught Jon in the newly-built Music School in Hospital Lane (now the Drama School). Sherborne School was in the 1930s still very archaic in its outlook and fagging and the dominance of prefects was an important part of schoolboy life. It was therefore much to Jon’s annoyance that during an expensive trumpet lesson he was called away by a prefect just because he wanted him to make some toast. Jon wrote later that ‘This incident so rankled in my mind, that my career as a trumpet player never really took off, leaving Louis Armstrong to continue unchallenged as ‘numero uno’.’
Jon’s love of music was, however, still evident when on 12 October 1964 he appeared on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs, choosing a guitar for his luxury item and Ray Charles’s ‘Georgia on my mind’ as the track he’d save from the waves.
Having a good ear for accents as well as for music, Jon was a talented impressionist. The School tuck shop (or Toey) provided Jon with a rich source of material and in a later interview he revealed how the lady who ran the tuck shop became the inspiration for his character Commander Weatherby in the BBC Radio show The Navy Lark:
‘…there was a lady who ran a tuck shop. A sweet shop, cake shop, at the public school I was at called Sherborne, in England. And she was a lovely old lady, and every boy used to go along there and ask for a long bun and a short bun and a glass of Tizer or pop, you know. And she, being the polite lady that she was, always pretended that she knew who that boy was. We used to say one long bun and one short bun please Mrs Thomson. She used to say thank you very much Mr. … Mr … Next… So I developed this sort of character ….. never could ….. never …. oh to hell with the whole thing. He never could get anything out…’
This lady was in fact Mrs Ford, who David Harris (Westcott 1930-35) described as ‘a most courteous lady who liked to think she knew every boy’s name but addressed them “Thankyervarramarch, Mister er-er-um”.’
Jon also remembered moments of laughter at Sherborne, such as when his teacher ‘Doughy’ Randolph announced in a lesson that he wanted to see Jon after class, saying “I want to see Jon P. in my study immediately after lunch.”
Unfortunately, following an unpleasant incident of bullying, Jon’s father decided to move him to another school. Jon’s talent as a performer had evidently been noted at Sherborne and just before he left in December 1934 he was invited to give a recitation at the Abbeylands House Supper.
In his autobiography, Jon included the words for a school song he had written for those who didn’t have one. This, he said, was to be sung to the tune of ‘Vivat Rex Edwardus Sextus’, presumably meaning the tune of Sherborne School’s song The Carmen:
‘Toe to toe with your comrade on the playing field of life
With a hand to lend, to a fallen friend, when he’s tackled in the strife
Seize the ball of hope from the fly-half as it come from the scrum of care
Once it’s in your clutch make a sprint for the touch, let him hinder you who dares
Then with your head held high,
Bravely sing, as you score life’s try…
Omne crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum,
Grata super veniet quae non superbitur hora.
Me pinguem et nitidum bene curate cute vises
Cum ridere voles epicure de grege porcum.’
Jon went on to study at RADA before, as he said, he was thrown out ‘for being utterly inefficient and hopeless and no future as an actor at all.’ Leaving RADA in 1939, Jon served during the Second World War on HMS Hood and HMS Valkyrie, and also with the Naval Intelligence Division. Experiences he would later use during the eighteen years he spent playing Chief Petty Officer Pertwee, Commander Weatherby, and Vice-Admiral Burbly Burwasher in the BBC Radio sitcom The Navy Lark.
A versatile actor, Jon also appeared on stage and screen. However, it was his casting in 1969 as the Third Doctor in the BBC TV series Doctor Who, that would bring him into the sitting rooms of a generation, even if most of them were cowering behind the sofa! From 3 January 1970 to 8 June 1974, Jon appeared in 128 episodes of Doctor Who. He later credited his performance as the Doctor with helping him work out exactly who he really was as an actor when he was not resorting to comedic disguises or voices.
During Jon’s four years as the Doctor, he appeared in twenty-four Doctor Who story lines:
Spearhead from Space
The Silurians
The Ambassadors of Death
Inferno
Terror of the Autons
The Mind of Evil
The Claws of Axos
Colony in Space
The Daemons
Day of the Daleks
The Curse of Peladon
The Sea Devils
The Mutants
The Time Monster
The Three Doctors
Carnival of Monsters
Frontier in Space
Planet of the Daleks
The Green Death
The Time Warrior
Invasion of the Dinosaurs
Death to the Daleks
The Monster of Peladon
Planet of the Spiders
In 1974 Tom Baker took over the role of the Doctor, but Jon would return in 1983 to take part in the 20th anniversary special The Five Doctors.
Jon’s next big role was the title character in the ITV series Worzel Gummidge, which was based on the books by Barbara Euphan Todd and saw Jon as the scarecrow with Una Stubbs as Aunt Sally. The show ran for four series in the UK from 1979 to 1981 and was reprised in 1987 by Channel 4.
Jon died on 20 May 1996, aged 76, at Sherman, Connecticut, USA, and was buried at Putney Vale Cemetery, London. He was survived by his wife Ingeborg and their children Sean Pertwee and Dariel Pertwee who have both become actors.
See also:
- The Third Doctor, Doctor Who (BBC)
- Abbeylands
- OS Desert Island Discs castaways
- Daphne Oram (SG) and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
For further information please contact the School Archivist.
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