He was the founder of the PCEA Chogoria Hospital and is the namesake of the Clive Irvine College of Health Sciences on the slopes of Mount Kenya.
[1] After graduating with a degree in both the arts and medicine and surgery from Aberdeen University, Irvine joined the military as a medical officer.
He served as a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps in German East Africa during the First World War from 1917 to 1919.
He often was in correspondence with African porters coming from Uganda and Kenya, gaining knowledge of "native" medicine as well as fluency in Swahili and Kikuyu.
[2] Chogoria was found, by Carr and Arthur, to be a suitable site, situated near Mount Kenya, relatively central, with a waterfall to provide irrigation and hydroelectricity.
[citation needed] Irvine focused on treating yaws, an illness he believed almost fifty percent of the population had.
[6] In addition, he gained support from the Mwimbi by taming the problem of bush pig attacks on farm land by poisoning them with strychnine.
[2] Athletics were also used as a way to attract locals, holding sports days with events like the needle threading race.
Irvine outwardly opposed and competed with the local healers by targeting their specialties treatments such as foot and leg problems.
[1] Irvine retired from his medical work in 1961 but continued to minister, teach, develop Chogoria until the end of his life.
The mission hospital had 120 beds by the time of his death including outpatients, maternity, men's, and women's wards.
[13] Irvine also had a significant impact on the agriculture of the Tharaka-Nithi County by initiating the coffee cultivation in Chogoria.