NEWPORT BRANCH MEETING 2025 April 30

LYN HARDING by Stephen Lyons

This month we had a welcome return of Stephen Lyons as guest speaker. He related the history of Lyn Harding, a local lad who enjoyed world wide success as an actor.

David Llewellyn Harding was born in 1867 at St Brides, Monmouthshire. His parents were farmers. His initial employment was in Newport as a draper. However after a visit to the theatre (Old Victoria Hall, Newport- later the Lyceum) he was greatly attracted to acting. He joined an amateur drama class in Cardiff and began to learn the art.

In 1890 whilst on a train to Bristol a chance meeting with a touring group led to him standing in for a sick actor and his first professional engagement. He opened at the Theatre Royal, Bristol. During the next few years he toured the provinces in various roles before finally making his London debut in 1897. By then he had adopted the stage name Lyn Harding.

With very favourable reviews his career was blossoming and he toured India, Japan, Burma and the United States playing major roles. Lyn was invited by the famous theatre manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree to join his company and this led to work for Lyn for thirty odd years alongside people such as John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson and Ivor Novello.

He also extended his career by appearing in the new movie films- finally playing in 31 of them (both silent and talking roles) and in total some 125 different roles in the theatre. After his retirement he settled near Hemel Hampstead and remained active staging various plays and revues to raise money for the local community. Lyn died in 1952.