Laurence Irving

Laurence Sydney Brodribb Irving (1871-1914) was an English dramatist and novelist.

• He is not to be confused with:
  • The son of his older brother Harry Brodribb Irving, who was also called Laurence, but known as 'HB'.
  • The set-designer and grandson of Sir Henry Irving, also called Laurence, who wrote the highly-regarded and definitive biographies Henry Irving, the Actor and his World and The Successors.

Laurence Irving was a son of the great Victorian actor manager, Sir Henry Irving and brother to actor manager Harry Brodribb Irving. Due to the financial failure of one of Laurence's plays, his father was forced to sell the Lyceum Theatre, London. Irving was married to a fellow performer, actress Mabel Lucy Hackney (1880-1914).

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 Typhoon which was a topical play set in the time of the Russo-Japanese War, with Laurence playing a Japanese officer.

Laurence and Mabel Irving later drowned in the RMS Empress of Ireland disaster on May 29, 1914. Reports in the news accounts of the tragedy say that they got separated and Laurence was in a position of temporary safety, but he knew Mabel could not swim and he jumped back into the St. Lawrence River to rescue her. Their bodies were never found.

Bibliography

• Godefroi and Yolande: A medieval play in one act (1894)
• Typhoon (1913)

External links

• Portrait of Mabel Lucy Hackney

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