Ervine, St John (Greer) (1883-1971)

Northern Irish playwright, novelist, and theatre critic. Ervine was born in Belfast, but in 1900 moved to London, where he embarked on his writing career. From 1915 to 1916 he was manager of the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, where his first plays, Mixed Marriage (1911) and Jane Clegg (1914) were produced. Ervine's dramas were realistic in their setting, with pronounced local colour. His later plays include Anthony and Anna (1926), The First Mrs Fraser (1929), and Robert's Wife (1937).

Ervine fell out with the Abbey Theatre company over his lack of sympathy with the republican ideals of the Easter Rising in 1916, and joined the Dublin Fusiliers to serve in World War I. Pensioned off after losing a leg in battle, he settled in Devon and went on to gain a high reputation as a drama critic. He worked for the British newspapers The Observer and The Morning Post, and, from 1932 onwards, for the BBC. Aside from his dramas, his writings include seven novels and a number of biographies, among the subjects of which were George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde.