Richard Le Gallienne was an English writer and poet. Eva Le Gallienne, a British-American actress, was his daughter from his second marriage to Danish journalist Julie Nørregaard (1863-1942). Richard Thomas Gallienne was born in West Derby, Liverpool, England, the eldest son of Jean ("John") Gallienne (1843-1929), manager of the Birkenhead Brewery, and his wife Jane (1839-1910), née Smith. He attended Liverpool College, which was an all-boys public school at the time. After finishing school, he changed his name to Le Gallienne and began working at an accountant's office in London. In 1883, his father took him to an Oscar Wilde lecture in Birkenhead. Mildred Lee, Richard's first wife, and Maria, their second daughter, died during childbirth in 1894, leaving Richard and their daughter Hesper Joyce. Following Mildred's death, he carried an urn holding her ashes with him at all times, including when married to his second wife. Rupert Brooke, who met Le Gallienne on a ship going for the United States in 1913 but did not warm to him, composed a brief poem called "For Mildred's Urn" to mock this behavior.
