Margaret Barton

Margaret Barton (born 27 May 1926 in Finsbury Park, London) is a British 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.

Barton began acting in the theatre at the age of 12. Because she was small for her age, during World War 2 she became known for playing children and young people. 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 Noel 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.

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. Barton lives in Dorset, where she runs a tea room, and still receives many letters relating to Brief Encounter.

• Brief Encounter (1945)
• Temptation Harbour (1947)
• Good-Time Girl (1948)
• Landfall (1949)
• The Romantic Age (1949)
• The Happy Family (1952)
• The Gay Dog (1954)