Editing Richard Burton (section)

== Early life ==
=== Childhood ===
Burton was born Richard Walter Jenkins Jr. on 10 November 1925 in a house at 2 Dan-y-bont in [[Pontrhydyfen]]<!--Neath Port Talbot did not exist in 1925, Glamorgan is correct-->, [[Glamorgan]], Wales.{{Sfn|Bragg|1988|pp=6–8}}<ref name="Pontrhydyfen">{{cite web | url=http://richardburtonmuseum.weebly.com/pontrhydyfen.html | title=Pontrhydyfen | publisher=The Richard Burton Museum | access-date=14 April 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160414100404/http://richardburtonmuseum.weebly.com/pontrhydyfen.html | archive-date=14 April 2016 | url-status=dead | df=dmy-all }}</ref> He was the twelfth of thirteen children born into the [[Welsh-speaking]] family of Richard Walter Jenkins Sr. (5 March 1876 – 25 March 1957),<ref name="richardburtonmuseum.weebly.com">https://richardburtonmuseum.weebly.com/richard-burton-people.html</ref> and Edith Maude Jenkins (née Thomas; 28 January 1883 – 31 October 1927).<ref name="richardburtonmuseum.weebly.com"/>{{Sfnm|1a1=Bragg|1y=1988|1pp=6–7|2a1=Parish|2y=2011|2p=26|3a1=Jedlicka|3y=2011|3p=83}} Jenkins Sr., called Daddy Ni by the family, was a coal miner, while his mother worked as a barmaid at a pub called the Miners Arms in the village where she met her husband.{{Sfnm|1a1=Alpert|1y=1986|1p=23|2a1=Bragg|2y=1988|2p=5}} They married, without approval of her parents, at [[Neath]] Register Office on 24 December 1900.<ref>{{cite web |title=Richard Burton People |url=https://richardburtonmuseum.weebly.com/richard-burton-people.html |website=richardburtonmuseum.weebly.com |publisher=The Richard Burton Online Museum |access-date=31 March 2025}}</ref>  According to biographer [[Melvyn Bragg]], Richard is quoted saying that Daddy Ni was a "twelve-pints-a-day man" who sometimes went off on drinking and gambling sprees for weeks, and that "he looked very much like me".{{Sfn|Bragg|1988|p=3}} Jenkins Sr. was badly burned in a mining explosion and his father Thomas had been confined to a wheelchair after a mining accident.<ref>{{cite book |title=Rogue Males: Richard Burton, Howard Marks and Sir Richard Burton |last=Walters |first=Rob |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2A8jMbBb81oC |year=2006 |publisher=Satin |page=59}}</ref>

[[File:Miners Arms, Pontrhydyfen - geograph.org.uk - 3798450.jpg|thumb|right|The Miners Arms in the village of Pontrhydyfen. Here Burton's mother worked before marriage and where Burton's father regularly drank.]]
He remembered his mother to be "a very strong woman" and "a religious soul with fair hair and a beautiful face".{{Sfnm|1a1=Bragg|1y=1988|1p=3|2a1=Munn|2y=2014|2p=12}} Richard was barely two years old when his mother died on 31 October, six days after the birth of Graham, the family's thirteenth child.<ref name="Pontrhydyfen"/> Edith's death was a result of [[postpartum infections]]; Richard believed it occurred because of "hygiene neglect".{{Sfn|Bragg|1988|p=7}} According to biographer [[Michael Munn]], Edith "was fastidiously clean", but her exposure to the dust from the coal mines resulted in her death.{{Sfn|Munn|2014|p=15}} Following Edith's death, Richard's elder sister Cecilia, whom he affectionately addressed as "Cis", and her husband Elfed James, also a miner, took him under their care. Richard lived with Cis, Elfed and their two daughters, Marian and Rhianon, in their three-bedroom terraced cottage on 73 Caradoc Street, [[Taibach]], a suburban district in [[Port Talbot]], which Bragg describes as "a tough steel town, [[English language|English-speaking]], grind and grime".{{Sfnm|1a1=Bragg|1y=1988|1pp=7, 10, 11|2a1=Munn|2y=2014|2p=15}}<ref>{{cite web | url=http://richardburtonmuseum.weebly.com/personal.html | title=A Selection Of Richard Burton Personal Items | publisher=The Richard Burton Museum | access-date=15 April 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160415014048/http://richardburtonmuseum.weebly.com/personal.html | archive-date=15 April 2016 | url-status=dead | df=dmy-all }}</ref>

[[File:73 Caradoc Street, Port Talbot SA13 1UD.jpg|right|thumb|Childhood home with sister Cis]]
Richard remained grateful and loving to Cis throughout his life, later going on to say: "When my mother died she, my sister, had become my mother, and more mother to me than any mother could ever have been&nbsp;... I was immensely proud of her&nbsp;... she felt all tragedies except her own". Daddy Ni would occasionally visit the homes of his grown daughters but was otherwise absent.{{Sfn|Bragg|1988|pp=7, 10}} Another important figure in Richard's early life was Ifor, his brother, 19 years his senior. A miner and [[rugby union]] player, Ifor "ruled the household with the proverbial firm hand". He was also responsible for nurturing a passion for rugby in young Richard.{{Sfnm|1a1=Bragg|1y=1988|1pp=12–13, 17|2a1=Jenkins|2a2=Rogers|2y=1993|2p=7}} Although Richard also played cricket, tennis, and table tennis, biographer Bragg notes rugby union football to be his greatest interest. On rugby, Richard said he "would rather have played for Wales at [[Cardiff Arms Park]] than Hamlet at [[The Old Vic]]".{{Sfn|Bragg|1988|p=17}} The Welsh rugby union centre, [[Bleddyn Williams]], believed Richard "had distinct possibilities as a player".{{Sfn|Bragg|1988|p=18}}

From the age of five to eight, Richard was educated at the [[List of schools in Neath Port Talbot#Primary schools|Eastern Primary School]] while he attended the Boys' segment of the same school from eight to twelve years old.{{Sfn|Alpert|1986|p=26}}<ref name="visitnpt">{{cite web | url=http://www.visitnpt.co.uk/pdf/RB_TrailsLeafletPrinted.pdf | title=Richard Burton Trails | publisher=visitnpt.co.uk | access-date=15 April 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160415024251/http://www.visitnpt.co.uk/pdf/RB_TrailsLeafletPrinted.pdf | archive-date=15 April 2016 | url-status=dead | df=dmy-all }}</ref> He took a scholarship exam for admission into [[Port Talbot Secondary School]]{{efn|later known as the [[Dyffryn School]].<ref name="visitnpt"/>}} in March 1937 and passed it.{{Sfnm|1a1=Alpert|1y=1986|1p=26|2a1=Bragg|2y=1988|2p=17–18}} Biographer [[Hollis Alpert]] notes that both Daddy Ni and Ifor considered Richard's education to be "of paramount importance" and planned to send him to the [[University of Oxford]].{{Sfn|Alpert|1986|pp=24–25}} Richard became the first member of his family to go to secondary school.{{Sfn|Alpert|1986|pp=24–26}} He displayed an excellent speaking and singing voice since childhood, even winning an [[eisteddfod]] prize as a [[boy soprano]].{{Sfn|Alpert|1986|p=26}} Whilst a pupil at Port Talbot Secondary School, Richard also showed immense interest in reading poetry as well as English and [[Welsh-language literature|Welsh literature]].<ref name="visitnpt"/>{{Sfn|Bragg|1988|p=21}} He earned pocket money by running messages, hauling horse manure, and delivering newspapers.{{Sfn|Alpert|1986|p=25}}

=== Philip Burton years ===
[[File:6 Connaught Street, Port Talbot SA13 1ET.jpg|right|thumb|Home of Elizabeth 'Ma' Smith in Port Talbot where both Philip Burton and Richard Jenkins, later Burton, lodged.]]
Richard was bolstered by winning the Eisteddfod Prize and wanted to repeat his success. He chose to sing Sir [[Arthur Sullivan]]'s "Orpheus with his Lute" (1866), which biographer Alpert thought "a difficult composition". He requested the help of his schoolmaster, [[Philip Burton (theatre director)|Philip Burton]],{{efn|Philip taught Arithmetic and English at Port Talbot Secondary School in addition to holding plays for the school.{{Sfn|Alpert|1986|pp=27–28}}}} but his voice cracked during their practice sessions. This incident marked the beginning of his association with Philip.{{Sfn|Alpert|1986|p=27}} Philip later recalled, "His voice was tough to begin with but with constant practice it became memorably beautiful."{{Sfn|Bragg|1988|p=37}} Richard made his first foray into theatre with a minor role in his school's production of the Irish playwright [[George Bernard Shaw]]'s ''[[The Apple Cart]]''. He decided to leave school by the end of 1941 and work as a miner as Elfed. However he ended up with a job, which he came to dislike intensely, at the local [[Taibach]] [[Co-operatives UK|Co-operative]] retail store as a [[draper]]'s assistant in the menswear department, limited at that time by war-time rationing. He also simultaneously considered other professions for his future, including boxing, religious ministry and singing. It was also during this period that Richard took up smoking and drinking despite being underage.{{Sfn|Alpert|1986|pp=29–30}}
{{Quote box|bgcolor=#FAE7B5|quote=One day in 1964 when Richard [Burton] was playing in ''Hamlet'' on Broadway, he and I were interviewed jointly in a private corner of an Eighth Avenue bar and restaurant much frequented by theatre people. We had a live audience of one, Richard's wife, Elizabeth Taylor. One of the questions aimed at me was, "How did you come to adopt him?" [...] Richard jumped in with "He didn't adopt me; I adopted him." There was much truth in that. He needed me, and, as I realised later, he set out to get me.|source=Philip Burton in his 1992 autobiography ''Richard & Philip: The Burtons : a Book of Memories''.{{Sfnm|1a1=Bragg|1y=1988|1p=33|2a1=Burton|2y=1992|2p=184}}|align=right|width=35%}}
When he joined the Port Talbot Squadron 499 of the [[Air Training Corps]] section of the [[Royal Air Force]] (RAF) as a cadet, he re-encountered Philip, who was the squadron commander. He also joined the Taibach Youth Centre, a youth drama group founded by Meredith Jones{{efn|Jones was instrumental in helping Richard pass his scholarship test for admission to Secondary School.{{Sfn|Alpert|1986|p=26}}}} and led by Leo Lloyd, a steel worker and avid amateur thespian, who taught him the fundamentals of acting. Richard played the role of an [[Jean Valjean|escaped convict]] in Lloyd's play, ''The Bishop's Candlesticks'', an adaptation of a section of [[Victor Hugo]]'s ''[[Les Misérables]]''. The play did not have any dialogue, but Alpert noted that Richard "mimed his role".{{Sfnm|1a1=Alpert|1y=1986|1p=30–31|2a1=Bragg|2y=1988|2p=40|3a1=Munn|3y=2014|3p=26}} Philip gave him a part in a radio documentary/adaptation of his play for [[BBC Radio]], ''Youth at the Helm'' (1942).{{Sfn|Alpert|1986|p=30}}<ref name="Philip Independent">{{cite news | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-philip-burton-1572514.html | title=Obituary: Philip Burton | work=[[The Independent]] | date=11 February 1995 | access-date=16 April 2016 | first=Graham | last=Jenkins | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160416062030/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-philip-burton-1572514.html | archive-date=16 April 2016 | url-status=live}}</ref> Seeing the talent Richard possessed, both Jones and Philip re-admitted him to school on 5 October 1942.{{Sfnm|1a1=Ferris|1y=1981|1p=42|2a1=Alpert|2y=1986|2pp=31–32}}{{efn|Elfed was against Richard going back to school for they could not afford to send him. Richard retaliated by simply walking out of the house, saying he wasn't coming back. He stayed with Philip for a year from 1942 to 1943.{{Sfn|Alpert|1986|p=34}}}} Philip tutored his charge intensely in school subjects and also worked at developing the youth's acting voice, including outdoor voice drills which improved his projection.{{Sfnm|1a1=Alpert|1y=1986|1p=32|2a1=Bragg|2y=1988|2p=38}} Richard called the experience "the most hardworking and painful period" in his life.{{Sfn|Alpert|1986|p=32}} Philip called Richard "my son to all intents and purposes. I was committed to him",{{Sfn|Alpert|1986|p=34}} while Burton later wrote of Philip, "I owe him everything".{{r|Philip Independent}}

In the autumn of 1943, Philip planned to adopt Richard but was not able to do so as he was 20 days too young to be 21 years older than his ward, a legal requirement. As a result, Richard became Philip's legal [[ward (law)|ward]] and, aged 18, changed his surname on 26 November 1943 to "Burton", after Philip's own surname, by means of [[deed poll]], which Richard's father accepted.<ref name="Philip Independent"/>{{Sfnm|1a1=Alpert|1y=1986|1p=35|2a1=Bragg|2y=1988|2p=41}} It was also in 1943 that Richard qualified for admission into a university after excelling in the School Certificate Examination. Philip requested Richard to study at [[Exeter College, Oxford]], as a part of a six-month scholarship programme offered by the RAF for qualified cadets prior to active service.{{Sfnm|1a1=Alpert|1y=1986|1p=35|2a1=Munn|2y=2014|2p=41}}