Laurence Irving (dramatist)

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Laurence Sydney Brodribb Irving
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This article is about Laurence Irving, the English dramatist and actor. For other people named Laurence Irving, see Laurence Irving.

Laurence Irving (1871–1914)

Laurence Sydney Brodribb Irving (21 December 1871 – 29 May 1914)

dramatist and actor. He died along with his wife, Mabel, in the RMS Empress of Ireland
disaster.

Life and career

Vanity Fair
in 1912

Born in

F. R. Benson's theatrical company – not counting childhood performances.[3] In 1892 he appeared at Toole's Theatre in Daisy's Escape, and after a time toured as Svengali in Trilby. In 1898 he then joined his father's Company at the Lyceum Theatre taking minor roles or juvenile leads as in Peter the Great (1898), Robespierre (1899), as Courriol in The Lyons Mail (1900), Coriolanus (1900–01), Dante (1902–03), Much Ado About Nothing (1904–05), and as Nemours in Louis Xl. Robespierre was his own translation from the French of Victorien Sardou, as also was Dante, in which his father acted.[2][4]

Soon after he became an

His Majesty's Theatre.[4]

Irving was also a dramatist,[6] his stage plays including Robespierre (1899), Richard Lovelace (1901), Dante (1903), The Fool Hath Said: There Is No God (1908), The Incubus (1909), The Affinity (1910), and The Three Daughters of Monsieur Dupont (1910). Due to the financial failure of his play Dante his father was forced to sell the Lyceum Theatre, London. Irving was married to a fellow performer, actress Mabel Lucy Hackney (1872–1914).

Laurence and Mabel were on a tour of first Australia and then North America from 1912 to 1914. Their biggest success on the tour was Laurence's own play The Typhoon.

Death

At the end of the tour they were returning home when Laurence and Mabel Irving drowned in the

RMS Empress of Ireland disaster on May 29th 1914 when in the early hours of the morning, The Empress of Ireland was rammed by the Storstad, a Norwegian collier, in her starboard midsection. Storstad remained afloat, however Empress of Ireland was severely damaged. A gaping hole in her side caused the lower decks to flood faster than the crew could handle, made worse by the Empress' ever increasing starboard list. Most of the passengers and crew located in the lower decks drowned quickly and water entered through open portholes, some only a few feet above the water line, and inundated passageways and cabins. Those berthed in the upper decks were awakened by the collision, and immediately boarded lifeboats on the boat deck. Within a few minutes of the collision, the list was so severe that the port lifeboats could not be launched. At least one boat was lowered on the port side, which boat is not clear, however what is known is that said boat flipped during lowering spilling its occupants into the frigid water. Five starboard lifeboats were launched successfully, while a sixth capsized during lowering on the starboard side.[7]

Irving and Mabel Hackney in The Incubus c1910

Ten or eleven minutes after the collision, Empress of Ireland lurched violently onto her starboard side, allowing as many as 700 passengers and crew to crawl out of the portholes and decks onto her port side. The ship lay on her side for a minute or two, having seemingly run aground. A few minutes later at 02:10, about 14 minutes after the collision, the bow rose briefly out of the water and the ship finally sank. Hundreds of people were thrown into the near-freezing water. The disaster resulted in the deaths of 840 people.

Accounts of the tragedy say that Laurence and Mabel Irving were separated and whilst Laurence may have been in a position of temporary safety, he knew Mabel could not swim and so jumped back into the St. Lawrence River to rescue her. Their bodies were never recovered.

See also

  • Irving Family

References

  1. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922). "Irving, Henry Brodribb" . Encyclopædia Britannica (12th ed.). London & New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company.
  2. ^
    ISBN 9780192825742
    Published online: 2003
  3. ^ "Music and the Drama: Irving's Visit". The Week: A Canadian Journal of Politics, Literature, Science and Arts. 1 (13): 205. 28 February 1884. Retrieved 27 April 2013.
  4. ^ a b 'Late Mr Laurence Irving: Empress of Ireland Victim' – The Cairns Post (Queensland, Australia: 1909-1954), 16 June 1914, Page 2
  5. ^ The Typhoon (1912) – Theatricalia website
  6. ^ Vanity Fair magazine 'Men of the Day' (1912)
  7. ^ "Report and Evidence of the Commission of Enquiry into the Loss of the British Steamship "Empress of Ireland" of Liverpool (O. No. 123972) Through Collision With the Norwegian Steamship "Storstad." Quebec, June, 1914". Sessional Papers of the Parliament of the Dominion of Canada. Vol. 16: Fifth session of Twelfth Parliament, volume L. Ottawa: J. de L. Tache. 1914. No.21b–1915. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  • Holroyd, Michael (2008): A Strange Eventful History; The Dramatic Lives of Ellen Terry, Henry Irving and their Remarkable Families; Pub. Chatto & Windus
    ISBN 9780701179878

Bibliography

  • Godefroi and Yolande: A medieval play in one act (1894)
  • "Much Ado About Nothing" (1905)
  • Typhoon (1913)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Laurence Irving.
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