Born in England in 1875, Dorothea Forster Baird made her first stage appearance with the Oxford Union Dramatic Society (OUDS) in 1894 as Iris in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She then married friend and former OUDS player Henry B. Irving, the son of Sir Henry, in 1896, so her career was quite naturally entwined with that of her husband. They seldom appeared separately on stage. In 1894, Baird joined Ben Greet’s company where she played many Shakespeare roles, among them Hippolyta and Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hermione in The Winter’s Tale, and Rosalind in As You Like It. Her first appearance on the London stage was as Hippolyta. She got her big break when Beerbohm Tree chose Baird to play Trilby opposite his Svengali in his 1895 production of Trilby at the Haymarket Theatre. This play, and Baird’s portrayal, made it fashionable for women to smoke cigarettes in private and was the source of the Trilby hat for men.

In 1904, Baird created the role of Mrs. Darling in the first-ever production of J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan after being considered for the role of what became Captain Hook. H. B. Irving began to revive many of his father’s plays and most famous parts, so Baird had an opportunity to play in The Bells, The Lyons Mail, and numerous Shakespeare plays. Between 1895 and 1913 she played the major female roles in As You Like It, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hamlet. Both Baird and H. B. Irving had long successful careers and Shakespeare was no small part of their repertory. Her last role in London was as Portia in a 1910 run of The Merchant of Venice at His Majesty’s Theatre.

In 1913, Baird retired from the stage and spent most of her time in charitable causes, primarily those that benefited infant welfare. She died in Kent in 1933 regarded as an outstanding performer, even more so than her husband who was never quite able to step from beneath the shadow of his legendary father.

Henry Brodribb Irving was the first son of Sir Henry Irving; he used the stage name “H. B.” to distinguish himself from his illustrious father. In 1894, the same year he was called to the Bar, Inner Temple, he chose the theater as a profession and was continuously employed from then on as an actor. He acted in his father’s company, and served several times as an actor-manager in the London theaters. For a short period, he took over managing the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre and the Stratford Shakespeare Festival while Sir Frank Benson visited the US. During World War I, however, he retired from acting to pursue a successful career in law and an interest in writing about criminals. His well-known book, A Book of Remarkable Criminals, was published in 1918. He founded, with Arthur Conan Doyle and others, Our Society, a club which continues to meet regularly for dinner to discuss murders and other crimes.

Over time, Irving played in many of the same Shakespeare roles as his father—Iago, Hamlet, Romeo, etc. However, he could never fully break free of his father’s immense shadow. He played Hamlet for the first time in 1904, just a year before his father’s death. This successful production at the Adelphi Theatre included Oscar Asche as Claudius, Lily Brayton as Ophelia, and Walter Hampden as Laertes. Some of the cards here are of this production.

H. B. married Dorothea Baird (1875-1833), a friend and actress who first appeared with him in several Oxford Union Dramatic Society performances while he was a student at New College. Known at the time as the best actress in Britain, she went on in her professional career to play many Shakespeare roles in the companies of Ben Greet, Beerbohm Tree, and her father-in-law, Henry Irving. In 1900, they both appeared in Tree’s hugely popular A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which ran for 153 shows at Her Majesty’s Theatre. They went on to tour most of the provincial British cities, like his father had done, as well as the United States, Australia, and South Africa. With her, Irving had two children, Laurence and Elizabeth.