Lawrence, John Fortune

by Turlough O'Riordan

Lawrence, John Fortune (1833–97), sporting merchant and publisher, was born 13 January 1833 in Dublin, the eldest of six brothers and five sisters (three of each reaching adulthood) of William Lawrence (d. 1887), a clerk of works at the GPO, and his wife Elizabeth (née Mervyn; d. 1889), a shopkeeper. From 1855, John Lawrence, after learning his trade in his mother's shop at 5–7 Upper Sackville Street, ran his own toy and sports warehouse, the Civit Cat Bazaar, at 39 Grafton Street. Incorporating a photographic gallery and portrait studio from 1858, he sold cricket and archery equipment, fireworks and a variety of toys and jewellery.

Exiting the photographic business, Lawrence sold his negatives to his younger brother William (qv), and became a leading sports merchant in Dublin. As interest in archery and cricket (the latter, between the great famine and the land war, becoming perhaps the most popular sport in Ireland) rose and waned through the 1860s and early 1870s, Lawrence turned increasingly to promote athletics, rugby and association football. He organised Irish cricket selections (often under the Gentlemen of Ireland banner) to compete against visiting English teams (1857, 1860, 1861, 1865, 1868, 1869), playing at the Leinster Cricket Club or Dublin University grounds.

Equipping teams and cataloguing their exploits during cricket's zenith in the 1870s, he commenced publication of John Lawrence's handbook of cricket in Ireland in 1865. The annual, the compilation of which was attributed to 'J. T. H.' (James T. Hurford, a judicial civil servant active in Dublin athletics circles and honorary secretary of Phoenix CC), remains an invaluable record of sport and leisure in late-Victorian Ireland. Advertising Lawrence's expanding range of goods (tennis, badminton, croquet, fives, fencing, gymnastics equipment and parlour games), the Handbook (sixteen editions, 1865–6 to 1880–81, the latter a double number) carried club listings, fixture lists and sports reports, alongside occasional historical sporting accounts. Outlining the rules of cricket, archery, rugby and association football, it fulfilled an important instructional function in the absence of national organising structures. Growing interest in rugby and football saw their expanding treatment in later editions of the handbook, gradually displacing cricket and archery. Lawrence also published The Irish cricketers in the United States 1879 [by one of them], was the Irish agent for the English serial-journal Athlete, and promoted baseball and lacrosse exhibitions in the mid 1870s.

Lawrence emphasised his patronage by successive lord lieutenants – especially the 7th earl of Carlisle (qv), the marquess of Abercorn (qv) and the 5th earl Spencer (qv) – for his events, wares and publications. Aristocratic support for (and occasional playing of) cricket, notably by Carlisle, was integral to cricket's growth and popularity, especially amongst the gentry and the aspirational middle class. Lawrence also promoted himself as a 'pyrotechnic artist' and manufacturer of fireworks, organising displays (often accompanied by musical levees featuring RIC, DMP or regimental bands) in the Rotunda Gardens, the Marine Gardens in Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire), various cricket grounds, and at agricultural shows and aristocratic 'coming-of-age fêtes' around the country.

Presenting prizes for charitable and sports events, Lawrence astutely advertised the free availability of his 'committee rooms' for use by sports clubs and emergent associations, hosting a number of notable Irish sporting firsts at his Grafton Street premises (moving to 63 Grafton Street in 1878, then to 19 Grafton Street in 1886). There the Irish Football Union (IFU) held discussions (December 1874–January 1875) leading to the organisation of the first Ireland–England rugby game, and their subsequent AGMs (1875–6). Lawrence hosted early meetings (1873–5) of the Irish Championship Athletic Club and Lansdowne FC, both spearheaded by Henry Dunlop (qv), and the founding meeting of the Irish Cricket Union (3 May 1884).

On 12 February 1897 Lawrence collapsed in the Eastman shop, 25 South Great George's Street, Dublin, and was pronounced dead upon examination in the Adelaide Hospital; his death was attributed to cardiac syncope. Having resided at addresses in Bray, Blackrock and Baggot Street, he was survived by his wife Jeannie (d. 1936) and his son John Fortune Lawrence, with whom he had been in business since the early 1880s.