Dr Irvine trained as a surgeon at Aberdeen before seeing wartime service in Africa with the Royal Army Medical Corps from 1917-1919. In 1919, he was appointed medical missionary to the new Church of Scotland mission to Chogoria. He took up his post in 1922 and remained at Chogoria until his retirement in 1961. He was ordained in 1933 and died in Nairobi in 1974.

The photographs, films and papers represent Dr Irvine's working and family life.