10 Gilston Road, The Boltons, South Kensington, UK

Laurence Sydney Brodribb Irving was born on December 21st, 1871. His parents were Florence O’Callaghan and Sir Henry Irving, who was a close personal friend and colleague of Ellen Terry’s for many years at the Lyceum Theatre. During his career he worked as an actor, Dramatist, and Novelist. He wrote several plays over the course of his life, including “The Fool Hath Said: There Is No God” (1908) and “Dante” (1903). He married Mabel Lucy Hackney in 1903 in Kensington. Both Laurence and Mabel served as members of a theatrical troupe that toured internationally. Apparently, one of Laurence’s plays failed so tremendously financially that his father was forced to sell the Lyceum Theatre, where both Henry and Terry acted in manys plays, in order to cover the costs. They died on the RMS Empress of Ireland when it was rammed by a Swedish coal ship when trying to return home to London on May 29th, 1914. Both of their bodies were buried at sea.