Colonel Leonard George Irvine (11 January 1906 – 27 April 1973) was a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

doctor who served in the

Royal Army Medical Corps The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. The RAMC, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps a ...

before, during and after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. As a young man he played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

for

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

. Irvine was born at

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

in 1906.Leonard Irvine

CricInfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

. Retrieved 2017-11-21. He was educated at

Taunton School Taunton School is a co-educational independent school in the county town of Taunton in Somerset in South West England. It serves boarding and day-school pupils from the ages of 13 to 18. The current headmaster is Lee Glaser, appointed in the aut ...

and at

Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge Sidney Sussex College (referred to informally as "Sidney") is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. The College was founded in 1596 under the terms of the will of Frances Sidney, Countess of Sussex (1531–1589), wife ...

Cricket career

In the freshmen's trial match at Cambridge in 1926 Irvine was the unexpected star: ''

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'' noted that much was anticipated from known

public school Public school may refer to: * State school (known as a public school in many countries), a no-fee school, publicly funded and operated by the government * Public school (United Kingdom), certain elite fee-charging independent schools in England an ...

players such as

Maurice Turnbull Maurice Joseph Lawson Turnbull (16 March 1906 – 5 August 1944) was a Welsh cricketer who played in nine Test matches for the England cricket team between 1930 and 1936. A talented all round sportsman, Turnbull excelled in several sports. In ...

and

Bunty Longrigg Edmund Fallowfield Longrigg, usually known as Bunty Longrigg (16 April 1906 – 23 July 1974), played cricket for Somerset and Cambridge University. He was captain of Somerset from 1938 to 1946 and later prominent in the county club administratio ...

, but that Irvine took eight wickets for 32 runs in the first innings with his slow

legbreak Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A leg spinner bowls right-arm with a wrist spin action. The leg spinner's normal delivery causes the ball to spin from right to left (from the bowler's perspective) when the ball bounces on the ...

s, and a further three in the second to finish with match figures of 11 for 42.Irvine, Colonel Leonard George
Obituaries in 1973, ''

'', 1974. Retrieved 2017-11-21. That performance propelled him into the University First XI for the first game of the season, and his success continued: in the middle of the university cricket season, he took 10 wickets in each of two consecutive matches. In the match against the

Free Foresters Free Foresters Cricket Club is an English amateur cricket club, established in 1856 for players from the Midland counties of England. It is a 'wandering' (or nomadic) club, having no home ground. The Free Foresters were founded by the Rev. Willi ...

, he finished with 11 wickets for 145 runs, and his second innings seven for 79 were the best innings figures of his career. The next game against The Army produced 10 wickets for 101 runs. After the Free Foresters game he became the first selection for the

University Match The University Match in a cricketing context is generally understood to refer to the annual fixture between Oxford University Cricket Club and Cambridge University Cricket Club. From 2001, as part of the reorganisation of first-class cricket, ...

against

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

that season, five weeks before the actual game. In the event, in the University Match itself, he took only one wicket, but in the 1926 season as a whole he took 52 wickets at a

bowling average In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...

of 19.59 runs per wicket, and he led Cambridge's bowlers both in terms of number of wickets and average.Leonard Irvine
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-11-21. ''Wisden'' noted in its 1927 edition that Irvine was the best bowler in the Cambridge side and, had he played on faster pitches, he "might well have met with still more success". He played a total of 26 matches for Cambridge and was selected for a second University Match in 1927, taking seven wickets in the game. At the end of the university cricket season he played in one match for an East of England team against the New Zealand touring team and in one game for

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ke ...

's First XI, as well as playing five times for Kent's Second XI in the

Minor Counties Championship The NCCA 3 Day Championship (previously the Minor Counties Cricket Championship) is a season-long competition in England and Wales that is contested by the members of the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), the so-called national cou ...

. In 1928 he played in five games for Cambridge but ''Wisden'' reported that he "showed so little of his old form that he had to be dropped from the eleven". He did not appear in first-class cricket after the end of the 1928 season.Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part Two: 1919–1939'', pp. 297–298.
Available online
at the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. Retrieved 7 August 2022.)

Army career

Irvine qualified as a doctor in 1932 when he was awarded

MB BChir Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery ( la, Medicinae Baccalaureus, Baccalaureus Chirurgiae; abbreviated most commonly MBBS), is the primary medical degree awarded by medical schools in countries that follow the tradition of the United Kin ...

at Cambridge. He became a

Member of the Royal College of Surgeons Membership of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland (MRCS) is a postgraduate diploma for surgeons in the UK and Ireland. Obtaining this qualification allows a doctor to become a member of one of the four surgical colleges ...

and Royal College of Physicians in 1933 and was commissioned as a

Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...

in the

in July 1933. He served mainly in Egypt and Palestine through the 1930s and by the time

began in 1939 he was a

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

.Irvine, George Leonard
British Army Officers 1939–1945. Retrieved 2017-11-21. During the war he served with the BEF in France, on the home front, in the North Africa Campaign and in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. He commanded the 2nd Field Ambulance, RAMC in North Africa and 1st Mobile Military Hospital in Italy, rising to the rank of temporary

Lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

by the end of the war. He was

Mentioned in Dispatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

in 1944 and was an acting

Brigadier Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. In ...

for a month after the end of the war. He was Commanding Officer, Military Hospital Wheatley near

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

between 1951 and 1953 and served in Sudan, Germany, the Middle East, Cyprus and in Britain after the war, retiring in September 1962. He died suddenly at

Bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

near

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

in April 1973 aged 67.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Irvine, Leonard 1906 births 1973 deaths English cricketers Cambridge University cricketers Kent cricketers People educated at Taunton School Alumni of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge Royal Army Medical Corps officers East of England cricketers British Army personnel of World War II Military personnel of British India British people in colonial India