Irvine was born in
Glasgow to factory owner John Irvine (a manufacturer of light-castings) and Mary Paton Colquhoun. He was educated at
Allan Glen's School. He then studied at the
Royal Technical College, Glasgow, before taking a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry at the
University of St Andrews. From there, he went to the
University of Leipzig, where he studied for a PhD under
Ostwald and
Wislicenus. Returning to St Andrews, he was awarded a Doctor of Science degree, and taught Chemistry there. He was appointed Professor of Chemistry in 1909 and
Dean of Science in 1912. In 1921, he was appointed Principal. His tenure saw the renovation and restoration of both buildings and traditions, and his works are still talked of today. His commitments spanned further than the University, into higher education in Britain and the colonies. He also served as acting Principal of
University College Dundee. He was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1917. His proposers were Sir James Walker,
John Edwin Mackenzie,
Cargill Gilston Knott, and Sir
D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson. He was elected a Fellow of
The Royal Society of London in 1918 also being awarded its Davy Medal. He served as Vice-President of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh from 1922 to 1925. He was elected an International Member of the
American Philosophical Society in 1933. He won the society's
Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize for 1936–1940. Irvine was also Willard Gibbs Medallist of the American Chemical Society, Elliot Cressan Medallist of the Franklin Institute, Longstaff Medallist of the Chemical Society of London. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1920 and knighted in 1925 and was awarded the Freedom of St Andrews. He received honorary doctorates from the Universities of
Aberdeen,
Cambridge,
Columbia,
Durham,
Edinburgh,
Glasgow,
Liverpool,
McGill,
Oxford,
Princeton,
Toronto,
Wales and
Yale. He died at home in St Andrews on 12 June 1952 and was buried in the eastern cemetery close to the main lower entrance gate. ==Publications==