Robert Irving

Captain Sir Robert Beaufin Irving OBE (16 July 1877 – 28 December 1954) was a Scottish officer of the Royal Naval Reserve and the British Merchant Navy.

He became Chief of Clan Irving and ended his naval career as Commodore of the Cunard-White Star Line.

Early life The son of Colonel John Beaufin Irving, of Kirtlebridge, Dumfriesshire, Irving was born in 1877 and educated at Fulland's College, Taunton, Ashborne Grammar School, and HMS Conway, in which he trained as a cadet from 1891 to 1895 and was a contemporary of John Masefield. In 1895 he became a midshipman in the Royal Naval Reserve. In 1901 he was promoted to Sub-Lieutenant, R.N.R., and in 1909 to Lieutenant.

Career In 1904 Irving joined the Cunard Line as a fourth officer in the Veria. He went on to serve in the ships Caronia, Umbria, Lucania, Carpathia, Lusitania, Carmania, Ivernia, and Brescia, and in 1913 he was appointed as chief officer in RMS Lusitania.

Irving's next post was as staff captain in the Mauretania, and then he gained his first command, as master of the Vennonia. Later commands were the ships Samaria, Ascania, Laconia, Franconia, Scythia, and Aquitania. In 1932 he was appointed as the R.N.R. aide-de-camp to King George V.

On 18 October 1938, Irving was acclaimed for his seamanship when he successfully docked the Queen Mary without the help of tugboats, as the tug-men were on strike. He used only his skill as a master mariner and two men in a rowing boat to get his ship into the North River pier on 50th Street. He later said he had been praying to Saint Christopher.

Retirement

In 1944 Irving retired to his ancestral home, Bonshaw Tower, a tower house at Kirtlebridge. For centuries it had been the home of the Irvings of Bonshaw, of which clan he was by then Chief.

Irving's time in retirement was spent on local affairs and in working for ex-service organizations. In 1946, he was appointed as a justice of the peace for Dumfriesshire and they were still together when he died in December 1954

Irving left no children, and the Bonshaw estate was inherited by his nephew Commander George Irving RN, who sold it to a distant relation.