Leonard Irvine
{{short description|British Army doctor}}
{{For|the US politician from Missouri|Leonard Irving}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
{{EngvarB|date=March 2021}}
{{Infobox cricketer
| name = Leonard Irvine
| image =
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption =
| fullname = Leonard George Irvine
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1906|01|11}}
| birth_place = Bombay, British India
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1973|04|27|1906|01|11}}
| death_place = Canterbury, Kent
| nickname =
| heightft =
| heightinch =
| heightcm =
| heightm =
| batting = Right-handed
| bowling = Legbreak
| role = Bowler
| family =
| club1 = Cambridge University
| year1 = {{nowrap|1926–1928}}
| club2 = Kent
| year2 = 1927
| type1 = FC
| debutdate1 = 1 May
| debutyear1 = 1926
| debutfor1 = Cambridge University
| debutagainst1 = Middlesex
| lastdate1 = 16 June
| lastyear1 = 1928
| lastfor1 = Cambridge University
| lastagainst1 = Gloucestershire
| columns = 1
| column1 = First-class
| matches1 = 28
| runs1 = 154
| bat avg1 = 8.10
| 100s/50s1 = 0/0
| top score1 = 14*
| deliveries1 = 3.726
| wickets1 = 98
| bowl avg1 = 23.33
| fivefor1 = 7
| tenfor1 = 2
| best bowling1 = 7/79
| catches/stumpings1 = 13/–
| source = http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/15435.html CricInfo
| date = 21 November
| year = 2017
}}
Colonel Leonard George Irvine (11 January 1906 – 27 April 1973) was a British Army doctor who served in the Royal Army Medical Corps before, during and after World War II. As a young man he played first-class cricket for Cambridge University.
Irvine was born at Bombay in British India in 1906.[http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/15435.html Leonard Irvine], CricInfo. Retrieved 21 November 2017. He was educated at Taunton School and at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.
Cricket career
In the freshmen's trial match at Cambridge in 1926 Irvine was the unexpected star: Wisden Cricketers' Almanack noted that much was anticipated from known public school players such as Maurice Turnbull and Bunty Longrigg, but that Irvine took eight wickets for 32 runs in the first innings with his slow legbreaks, and a further three in the second to finish with match figures of 11 for 42.[http://www.espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/228455.html Irvine, Colonel Leonard George], Obituaries in 1973, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 1974. Retrieved 21 November 2017.{{Cite book | title = Wisden Cricketers' Almanack | edition = 1927 | volume = Part II | publisher = Wisden |chapter = The Universities—Cambridge| page = 455}}
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, he finished with 11 wickets for 145 runs, and his second innings seven for 79 were the best innings figures of his career.{{cite web | url = https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/11/11857.html | title = Scorecard: Cambridge University v Free Foresters | date = 29 May 1926 |publisher = www.cricketarchive.com | accessdate = 9 June 2016}} The next game against The Army produced 10 wickets for 101 runs.{{cite web | url = https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/11/11875.html | title = Scorecard: Cambridge University v The Army | date = 5 June 1926 |publisher = www.cricketarchive.com | accessdate = 9 June 2016}} After the Free Foresters game he became the first selection for the University Match against Oxford University that season, five weeks before the actual game.{{cite news| title = Cambridge's First Victory: Fine Bowling by Mr Irvine | newspaper = The Times |issue = 44287 | page = 7 | location = London | date = 2 June 1926}} 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 of 19.59 runs per wicket, and he led Cambridge's bowlers both in terms of number of wickets and average.{{cite web | url = https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/11/11962.html | title = Scorecard: Oxford University v Cambridge University | date = 5 July 1926 |publisher = www.cricketarchive.com | accessdate = 27 November 2017}}[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/30/30543/30543.html 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".{{Cite book | title = Wisden Cricketers' Almanack | edition = 1927 | volume = Part II | publisher = Wisden |chapter = The Universities—Cambridge| page = 452}}
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.{{cite web | url = https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/12/12368.html | title = Scorecard: Oxford University v Cambridge University | date = 4 July 1927 |publisher = www.cricketarchive.com | accessdate = 27 November 2017}} 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's First XI, as well as playing five times for Kent's Second XI in the Minor Counties Championship. 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".{{Cite book | title = Wisden Cricketers' Almanack | edition = 1929 | volume = Part II | publisher = Wisden |chapter = The Universities—Cambridge| page = 462}} 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. ([https://archive.acscricket.com/books/Kent_Cricketers_A_to_Z_Part_Two.pdf 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 at Cambridge. He became a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons and Royal College of Physicians in 1933 and was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corps in July 1933. He served mainly in Egypt and Palestine through the 1930s and by the time World War II began in 1939 he was a Captain.[http://www.unithistories.com/officers/Army_officers_I01.html 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. 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 by the end of the war. He was Mentioned in Dispatches in 1944 and was an acting Brigadier for a month after the end of the war. He was Commanding Officer, Military Hospital Wheatley near Oxford 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 near Canterbury in Kent in April 1973 aged 67.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{cricinfo|id=15435}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Irvine, Leonard}}
Category:Cambridge University cricketers
Category:People educated at Taunton School
Category:Alumni of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
Category:Royal Army Medical Corps officers
Category:East of England cricketers
Category:British Army personnel of World War II
Category:Military personnel of British India