Jeremy Irvine

Irvine in 2012, image via Joe Seer/Bigstock.com

Birth Name: Jeremy William Fredric Smith

Place of Birth: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, U.K.

Date of Birth: 18 June, 1990

Ethnicity: English, as well as one eighth Scottish, 1/32 Channel Islander/Jersey, and distant Irish

Jeremy Irvine is an English actor. His roles include the films War Horse, Now Is Good, Great Expectations (2012), The Railway Man, A Night in Old Mexico, Beyond the Reach, The Woman in Black: Angel of Death, The World Made Straight, Stonewall, This Beautiful Fantastic, Fallen (2016), Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, Billionaire Boys Club, Paradise Hills, The Last Full Measure, and Benediction, and the series Treadstone.

He is the son of Bridget, a local politician with the Liberal Democratc party, and Christopher Smith, an engineer. His brother, Toby Irvine, has also acted. Jeremy took on Irvine, the first name of his paternal grandfather, as his stage surname.

Jeremy has roots in Cambridgeshire going back to at least the 1700s.

Jeremy’s paternal grandfather was Irvine Battinson Smith (the son of Fredric Battinson Smith and Mary Irvine Johnstone). Jeremy’s grandfather Irvine was born in Wharfedale, Yorkshire, England. Fredric was the son of William Hodgson Smith and Sarah Ann/Anne Battinson. Jeremy’s great-grandmother Mary was the daughter of Thomas Johnstone, who was Scottish, from Annan, Dumfriesshire, and of Clara Newboult.

Jeremy’s paternal grandmother is Kathleen Lilley Turner (the daughter of Sir Ralph Lilley Turner and Dorothy Rivers Goulty). Sir Ralph, a noted philologist and university administrator, was the son of George S. Turner and Bertha S. Lilley. Sir Ralph wrote the quotation used as the inscription on the Gurkha Memorial, London. Dorothy was the daughter of William Howard Goulty and Helen/Ellie Wood Longwill; Helen was Scottish, from Elie, Fife.

Jeremy’s maternal grandfather is Frank Glockling (the son of James Horace Glockling and Annie Florence Heywood). Frank was born in Swansea, Glamorganshire, Wales. James was the son of William Glockling and Charlotte Carter Orton. Annie was the daughter of William Heywood and Lillia Maria Nugent, who was of part Irish descent.

Jeremy’s maternal grandmother is Beryl Dorrington (the daughter of Horace John Dorrington and Dorothy Melinda Reeves). Beryl was born in East Stonehouse, Devon, England. Horace was the son of Thomas Piper Dorrington and Annie Augusta B. Helson. Dorothy was the daughter of William Henry Reeves and Melinda Ann Dufeu.

Jeremy’s great-great-grandmother Melinda Ann Dufeu was born on the island of Jersey, Channel Islands; she was the daughter of Matthew Philip Dufeu/Du Feu, who was from Saint Helier, and of Melinda/Malinda A. Stitson, who was English and whose own parents were William Stitson and Ann (likely Ann Abbott).

Sources: Genealogy of Jeremy Irvine – https://www.geni.com

Jeremy’s maternal great-great-grandmother, Melinda Ann Dufeu, on the 1871 England and Wales Census – https://familysearch.org