Drawing

Caricature drawing, showing the actor/manager Sir Henry Irving (1838-1905) as Corporal Gregory Brewster in Arthur Conan Doyle's play A Story of Waterloo. Pen and ink with highlights in blue crayon. Unsigned and undated.

Henry Irving (1838-1905) performed the role of Corporal Gregory Brewster in A Story of Waterloo, a one act play written by Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930). The action is set in 1881 but the central theme is the veteran soldier Brewster recounting to a visitor his memories of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Irving first produced the play in 1894 and it never lost its popularity with his audiences. It was the last role he performed on the London stage, at a charitable matinee in June 1905.