Plaque recalls couple’s poignant passing

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/02/2011 (5583 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A medium-sized, slightly smudged copper plaque, with the profiles of a man and woman in bas-relief, hangs in a snug alcove on the main floor of the historic Burton Cummings Theatre.

It is inscribed in part:

“This tablet was erected by the citizens of Winnipeg to perpetuate the memory of Laurence Irving and his wife Mabel Hackney who made their last appearance on the stage of this theatre on the 23rd of May 1914 and were drowned in the St. Lawrence River on the 29th May, 1914 with 1,021 others when the SS Empress of Ireland was sunk in collision with the collier Storstadt.”

In the early hours of that fateful day in May, the CPR ship Empress of Ireland plunged to the bottom of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, taking over 1,000 people to their deaths.

It was the worst disaster in the golden age of ocean liners: More passengers went down with the Empress of Ireland than with the Lusitania and the Titanic, author David Zeni writes in his 1998 book Forgotten Empress: The Empress of Ireland Story.

The ship’s passenger manifest, which is available online, reveals 41 people listed Winnipeg as home. Of those, 32 (including young children) were “lost” in the disaster and only six of those bodies were later found and identified.

“The Empress of Ireland and her sister, the Empress of Britain, were important ships,” Zeni writes.

“They were the first passenger liners to be built especially for the Canadian Pacific Line’s growing emigrant trade from Liverpool to Canada. The two Empresses provided a weekly service from Liverpool, starting in May and June 1906. Larger, faster and more comfortable than their rivals, they soon became the most popular ships on this route.”

Irving and Hackney were, perhaps, the most famous passengers travelling on board the Empress, according to Zeni, who notes the ship sank in under 15 minutes.

Laurence Irving was the younger son of famed Victorian actor Sir Henry Irving.

“For a time Irving was in the diplomatic service in St. Petersburg, Russia, but the lure of the stage proved too strong,” notes The Oxford Companion to the Theatre. “In 1913, in his early 40s, Irving was at the height of his career achieving great success in plays by Ibsen. A year later, he left with his wife, the actress Mabel Hackney, for a theatrical tour of Canada and the U.S.A.”

During their week in this city, Irving’s company performed four plays: Typhoon, The Unwritten Law, The Lily, and the first full performance in Winnipeg of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, reported the Manitoba Free Press (forerunner to the Winnipeg Free Press).

Winnipeg saw the last time Irving and Hackney ever appeared on stage. Yet, it was not their final act together.

A Manitoba Free Press account one week later described a courageous and moving scene — Irving and his wife drown clasped in each other’s arms:

“F.E. Abbott, of Toronto, was the last man to see Irving alive. ‘I met him first in the passenger way… and he calmly asked ‘Is the boat going down?’ I said it looked like it.

“Mrs. Irving began to cry and as the actor reached for a lifebelt, the boat suddenly lurched forward and he was thrown against the door of his cabin. His face was bloody and Mrs. Irving became frantic.

“Keep cool, he warned her… He forced the lifebelt over and urged her out of the cabin. He then practically carried her upstairs.

“Abbott said, ‘Can I help you?’ and Irving replied: Look after yourself first, old man, but God bless you all the same.’

“Abbott left the two… got on deck and dived overboard. He caught hold of a piece of timber… Irving was by this time on deck. He was soothing his wife, and as the ship went down, they were clasped in each other’s arms.”

The Laurence Irving Memorial Tablet was unveiled at 3:00 p.m. on March 1, 1915, onstage at the theatre. Afterwards, it was displayed in the window of Henry Birks & Sons Jewellers on Portage Avenue before being permanently placed in the theatre’s lobby.

 

Martin Zeilig is a Winnipeg writer.

mzeilig@mymts.net