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{{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 Cricket Club|Cambridge University]]
| year1 = {{nowrap|1926–1928}}
| club2 = [[Kent County Cricket Club|Kent]]
| year2 = 1927
| type1 = [[First-class cricket|FC]]
| debutdate1 = 1 May
| debutyear1 = 1926
| debutfor1 = Cambridge University
| debutagainst1 = [[Middlesex County Cricket Club|Middlesex]]
| lastdate1 = 16 June
| lastyear1 = 1928
| lastfor1 = Cambridge University
| lastagainst1 = [[Gloucestershire County Cricket Club|Gloucestershire]]
| columns = 1
| column1 = [[First-class cricket|First-class]]
| matches1 = 28
| runs1 = 154
| bat avg1 = 8.10
| 100s/50s1 = 0/0
| top score1 = 14[[not out|*]]
| 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 Cricket Club|Cambridge University]].

Irvine was born at [[Bombay]] in [[British India]] in 1906.<ref name=ci>[http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/15435.html Leonard Irvine], [[CricInfo]]. Retrieved 2017-11-21.</ref> 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 (United Kingdom)|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 [[legbreak]]s, and a further three in the second to finish with match figures of 11 for 42.<ref name=wisden74>[http://www.espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/228455.html Irvine, Colonel Leonard George], Obituaries in 1973, ''[[Wisden Cricketers' Almanack]]'', 1974. Retrieved 2017-11-21.</ref><ref>{{Cite book | title = [[Wisden Cricketers' Almanack]] | edition = 1927 | volume = Part II | publisher = [[Wisden Cricketers' Almanack|Wisden]] |chapter = The Universities—Cambridge| page = 455}}</ref>

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 Cricket Club|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.<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref name=ci/> The next game against [[British Army cricket team|The Army]] produced 10 wickets for 101 runs.<ref>{{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}}</ref> After the Free Foresters game he became the first selection for the [[University Match (cricket)|University Match]] against [[Oxford University Cricket Club|Oxford University]] that season, five weeks before the actual game.<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref name=wisden74 /><ref name=ca>[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/30/30543/30543.html Leonard Irvine], CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-11-21.</ref> ''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".<ref>{{Cite book | title = [[Wisden Cricketers' Almanack]] | edition = 1927 | volume = Part II | publisher = [[Wisden Cricketers' Almanack|Wisden]] |chapter = The Universities—Cambridge| page = 452}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{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}}</ref> At the end of the university cricket season he played in one match for an [[East of England cricket team|East of England team]] against the [[New Zealand cricket team in England in 1927|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]].<ref name=ca/> 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".<ref>{{Cite book | title = [[Wisden Cricketers' Almanack]] | edition = 1929 | volume = Part II | publisher = [[Wisden Cricketers' Almanack|Wisden]] |chapter = The Universities—Cambridge| page = 462}}</ref> He did not appear in first-class cricket after the end of the 1928 season.<ref name=ca/><ref name=carlaw>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.)</ref>

==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 (British Army and Royal Marines)|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 (British Army and Royal Marines)|Captain]].<ref name=bao>[http://www.unithistories.com/officers/Army_officers_I01.html Irvine, George Leonard], British Army Officers 1939–1945. Retrieved 2017-11-21.</ref>

During the war he served with the [[British Expeditionary Force (World War II)|BEF]] in France, on the home front, in the [[North Africa Campaign]] and in [[Italian Campaign (World War II)|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 (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant colonel]] by the end of the war. He was [[Mentioned in Dispatches]] in 1944 and was an acting [[Brigadier (United Kingdom)|Brigadier]] for a month after the end of the war. He was Commanding Officer, [[Wheatley Park School|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.<ref name=bao />

He died suddenly at [[Bridge, Kent|Bridge]] near [[Canterbury]] in [[Kent]] in April 1973 aged 67.<ref name=ci /><ref name=wisden74 /><ref name=bao />

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{cricinfo|id=15435}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Irvine, Leonard}}
[[Category:1906 births]]
[[Category:1973 deaths]]
[[Category:English cricketers]]
[[Category:Cambridge University cricketers]]
[[Category:Kent 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]]
[[Category:British people in colonial India]]

Leonard Irvine - Revision history

Bot at 14:20, 7 August 2022