AS the autumn sun bathed Strangford in a warm glow on the last Saturday in September, the family, friends, former colleagues and neighbours of John F. Irvine gathered in the little chapel on the deRos estate to celebrate a long and productive life of service to family, to public service and to community.
John Irvine was born in Largs in Ayrshire 93 years ago. He won scholarships to study modern languages at Glasgow University, and found himself on a studentship at the Sorbonne in Paris when the German army invaded France in the spring of 1940.
Returning to Britain, he enlisted in the RAF, trained as a pilot in Canada, and served out the war with distinction in several theatres, piloting Catalinas on submarine patrol over the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans.
Having married his first wife, Doris, during the war, he joined the Northern Ireland Civil Service on a graduate recruitment scheme, moved to Belfast and made his home there.
His civil service career, which culminated in his becoming Permanent Secretary of the Department of the Environment, was largely concerned with transport, with employment and with planning and the environment, in all of which fields, both before and during Direct Rule, he was a forceful and influential policy-maker and administrator.
In all of these too he left his mark on society and on the landscape — the M2 motorway, Belfast Central Station, the integration of bus and rail services which anticipated Translink, Aldergrove Airport and the relaxation of planning control on rural development.
Retirement at 60 meant only a change of direction rather than a slackening of pace. Having married again after the death of his wife Doris, he moved with Margot and their children to Downpatrick. Here he began a new career in the voluntary and non-governmental sector.
He took over and regenerated the Industrial Therapy Organisation (ITO), an offshoot of pioneering work in the former Downshire Hospital, providing it with a new sense of purpose and visionary plans for expansion and access to European networks and funding. He was also the driving force in the Downpatrick Regeneration Project rescued important parts of the urban fabric and streetscape, returning derelict buildings to profitable use.
A lifelong devotee of health and fitness, he remained active almost to the end, running marathons well into his sixties, practising yoga and maintaining a regime which ensured constant physical activity, intellectual curiosity and total immersion in family, community and neighbourly activities.
Movement to Strangford in his last years brought a new dimension to a life dedicated to service — in the RAF, in the public service, to family and friends and to the wider community.
After a full life, lived to the full with energy and enthusiasm, he is mourned by his wife Margot, by the children of both their marriages, and by a wide circle of friends. M.