The Welsh actor William Squire (1916-1989) is seen here in his costume as the Water Rat or Ratty, in a production of Toad of Toad Hall staged by the company from the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at London's Princes Theatre. Squire first played Ratty in John Kidd's production when it was originally seen at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in December 1948. It was revived at Stratford in December 1949 and December 1951 but the 1954 production at the Prince's Theatre was the first West End revival of A.A. Milne's popular play since the war. Based on Kenneth Grahame's 1908 novel The Wind in the Willows, the revival at the Prince's Theatre also starred Leo McKern as Toad, Edward Atienza as Mole, and Brewster Mason as Badger. The young Ian Holm played Harold Rabbit.

William Squire had a notable career on stage, in film and television, and spent several years with the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company in the late 1940s and early 1950s playing a wide variety of roles from Macbeth to Ratty. Desmond Heeley's costume for Rat portrays him almost as a Breton fisherman, with a jaunty kerchief, cap, jacket and knee-length breeches patched at the knees, with one rectangular striped patch and a triangular red one.