David R. Irwin: Signs of Love

In 1964, the Beatles made Liverpool a household word. That year, two lady missionaries near Liverpool converted seventeen-year-old David Irwin of Southport, Merseyside, England. If anyone had told him then that in sixteen years’ time he would be serving as a bishop, taking an advanced degree at Liverpool University, teaching the deaf, and touring Britain with a musical he had written and produced, his new faith would have found its limits. “I would not have believed it,” he smiles. “But that was before I knew what the Lord could do for a person.”

David’s schooling had been minimal. He left school early without a degree and with no special inclination toward music other than the attraction a teenager living near Liverpool might have felt for the Beatles as they were becoming international pop stars. But teaching Sunday School whetted David’s appetite for teaching. He realized that he was capable of doing more with his life. But where should he begin?

An answer began to form when he served as a district missionary and met a full-time missionary named Bill Garff, whose advice was “Get into college; save your money and attend BYU.”

Initially, David’s application to BYU was not accepted. But that week he received his patriarchal blessing in Manchester, and the patriarch included in that blessing the words, “You will further your education abroad.”

Less than a week later, another letter came from BYU, saying that if he could pay his way and keep his grades up, he could attend.

David felt prompted to choose drama as his course of study. In 1970 he won an award as best character actor and in 1972 the speech and drama award for best student teacher of drama.

Toward the end of his training, David became interested in helping the deaf. “While teaching children with full hearing, I could see the fulfillment and satisfaction they achieved from drama,” he comments. “It hit me one day that perhaps drama was a good vehicle for stimulating and developing language among deaf children.”

David proposed a trial project, working with seven- to nine-year-old deaf students from a local school. This proved so successful that the exercise remained part of the drama curriculum.

The following year, he returned to England to teach. There he met and married Lyn Protheroe, a teacher from Colwyn Bay, North Wales. Before long, David was granted a teaching position while he continued his studies in deaf education. In England these positions are not normally given without five years’ work experience. “I felt extremely blessed when I was offered a place at Manchester University for a one-year course with full teacher’s pay,” David recalls. That led to another job in Liverpool, this time in a special unit for deaf children.

In 1975, David began to direct his expertise in drama to benefit the Church. Asked to prepare a play to be performed at seminary graduation in Preston, he wrote a dramatization of part of Dickens’s The Uncommercial Traveler, which he called “The Immigrant Ship.” The play was well received.

The summer of 1976 saw David, Lyn, and baby daughter Carys Anne back in Utah. “I longed to share with my wife some of the wonderful friendships I’d made at BYU,” says David. However, despite David’s love of Salt Lake City and good employment teaching the deaf, he was about to discover where his duty really lay.

One morning during a priesthood meeting in the East Millcreek stake, the speaker talked mainly of youth and missions. “I left that meeting with some very deep thoughts regarding the mission field,” David says. “After prayerful discussion with Lyn, we both felt a strong desire to return to England. That was our future, the place the Lord had work for us to accomplish.”

With no home or job in mind, the Irwins—who now had a new baby, David—packed their bags once more and headed for Britain. Within weeks of their arrival, former contacts led David to an assignment as a traveling teacher of the deaf, covering areas throughout Lancashire. About this same time, David was called to serve as bishop of the Southport Ward.

Responding to the demands of a growing family, serving as bishop, and studying for his master’s degree were challenging, to say the least. But more challenges were in store for David.

At a meeting of stake presidents of the Manchester England Region in February 1980, the question was asked, “Do we have anyone who could write and produce a twenty-minute play to honor the Church’s worldwide sesquicentennial celebrations?”

Boris Roberts of the Liverpool stake raised his hand. “Yes, my bishop could do that,” he offered.

David agreed to do the play. It soon became obvious to him, however, that the twenty-minute play was meant to be much more. Inspiration for the first part came from the story of Mary Goble Pay’s pioneer journey from England. “I found her courage and tragic experience particularly moving,” says David, “so I decided to center the story on the gospel’s impact upon people of that day, followed by modern-day converts and its impact on them.”

At the time he was writing the musical he was traveling extensively, so he composed many lines mentally while driving. As the words for songs entered his mind, David would pull onto the side of the road and scribble them down on backs of envelopes or whatever scrap of paper came to hand. A story began to take shape, but it was much more like a full-length musical than a twenty-minute play.

Assistance for writing the music came in the form of a young missionary—a talented musician named Barlow Bradford—who was in the right place at the right time. His mission president gave permission, and Elder Bradford began writing the music David sang. The mission president also allowed another missionary, Andrew Turner, to assist in writing the guitar music; eventually he also performed onstage.

That December saw the opening in Liverpool of Britain’s first LDS musical, A Certain Call. The three-night production was so successful that the performers took the play on tour.

Conversion, reactivation, and rededication of members followed performances throughout Britain. At the London Temple Silver Jubilee celebration, A Certain Call thrilled all who attended. But that was by no means its last performance. A recording of the music was made, and in 1982 the play was performed at BYU, at the University of Utah, and in stake centers throughout Salt Lake City.

Just as his talent has developed, David’s career has also progressed. In 1986 he became deputy headmaster of one of Britain’s largest schools for the deaf, in Exeter, Devon. In a real way, David Irwin’s talents are his career, and he has devoted his life to helping others develop theirs.

Photo by Ann Florence