THE OXFORD
TIMES
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1957
 With
Camera and Pen
Impressions
by
DAVID PETERS OXFORD-BORN DR. HARRY IRVING, Vice-Principal of
St. Edmund Hall, and University Demonstrator in the
Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, is a product of SS.
Mary and John School (where his father, John
Irving, was headmaster), New College School
and St. Bedes School, Cumberland, to which he won a
Foundation Scholarship. He took his B.A. and B.Sc.
degrees from the Queen's College, where he was
Hastings Scholar and Grindal Exhibitioner, and by
1930 he was a Doctor of Philosophy, a senior
student of the University, and ready for a period
of research undertaken at the van t'Hoff
Laboratory, Utrecht, under Professor Ernst
Cohen. Up to this time his interest had been in organic
chemistry, and he was just wondering whether the
time had come for him to move on from Oxford when,
through a chance meeting with the late Professor
Soddy at the Oxford Ice Rink (of which more in
a moment), he was offered the post of Demonstrator
at the Inorganic Chemistry Department, which he
accepted. This entailed a change of subject, from
the study of carbon compounds, such as dyestuffs,
synthetic drugs, and the constituents of animals
and plants, to the study of inorganic compounds
derived from mineral substances -- a change which
at first he did not welcome. As time has gone by,
however, he has found himself able to combine the
two interests. His work deals broadly with the development of
new chemical substances for the measurement of
minute amounts of metals, and he has on hand at the
moment the problem of determining traces of silver
in effluents where only one ounce may be present in
eight hundred thousand gallons! This sort of work
has obvious applications, in forensic medicine for
instance, in the safeguarding of foodstuffs, and in
industry in general; but it is true to say that his
own real love lies in the research aimed at
understanding the fundamentals of these analytical
procedures, trying to discover just why metals do
react to form compounds. Like most university
science tutors, he also undertakes a formidable
teaching programme, and he has for many years been
the senior examiner in general science for G.C.E.,
as well as for many University examinations.  He
says he is not a man who finds social intercourse
an easy matter, but in two spheres in particular he
has found it easy to make lasting friendships. As a
younger man he spent a great deal of his spare time
at the Ice Rink, and skating and dancing on ice
became a ruling passion in his life. Figure-skating
especially appealed to him, not only for the grace
of movement it entailed, but also for the
mathematical precision it required. His own prowess
as a skater eventually qualified him to become a
judge for the British Amateur Championships. His
association with the members of the Churchill and
Apollo Masonic Lodges has provided him with a
second and much appreciated opportunity to meet his
fellows and form close attachments which would
otherwise have been denied him.
As I went up the stairs to his pleasant flat in
Crick Road, I heard sounds of music and found him
seated at his grand piano, playing a little-known
piece by Rachmaninoff. Music of one sort or another
was always to be heard in his boyhood home, and he
was only in his early twenties when he passed the
examination to become a Licentiate of the Royal
Academy of Music. Playing the music of the masters
-- especially Bach -- improvising, and even
composing a little are his main relaxations now
that skating (and rock-climbing) are no longer
possible. The fact that his wife is also a great
lover of piano music adds to his own enjoy-ment of
the brief periods he can snatch from his University
and College duties, from the preparation of
material for the scientific Press and from the
voluminous correspondence he carries on with
scientists in many parts of the world. Mrs. [Monica] Irving accompanied
her husband when, on a lecture tour in 1953 and as
visiting professor to the University of Minnesota
in 1955, he paid extended visits to America, whose
people Dr. Irving very much admires for their
open-hearted friendliness. He very much hopes to go
again to the United States, but in December he
will, if all goes well, find himself in very
different surroundings, having accepted an
invitation from Russian scientists to lecture in
Moscow, an experience to which he is looking
forward with anticipation. 
Photos of Moscow conference
|
write to David
Irving