in Australia. She was a Canadian citizen. In 1964, they moved to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and Irving began work as a research officer for Dominion Observatory with the Department of Mines and Technical Surveys. In 1966, Irving returned to England to teach geophysics at the University of Leeds. He returned to Ottawa in 1967 to work as a research scientist in the Earth Physics Branch of the Department of Energy, Mines, and Resources. In 1981, Irving moved to Sidney, British Columbia, to establish a paleomagnetism laboratory at the Pacific Geoscience Centre with the Earth Physics Branch. The branch would later be incorporated into the Geological Survey of Canada. He mapped the movements of Vancouver Island and other parts of the Cordillera that have moved sideways and rotated relative to the Precambrian Canadian Shield. In 2005, Irving was semi-retired, investigating the nature of the geomagnetic field in the Precambrian to understand how the crust was being deformed and how the latitudes varied. He and his wife Sheila had four children. He died during the night of 24 February 2014 in Saanich, British Columbia. Selected works Irving published a total of 205 papers, including: In addition, he published the first book on paleomagnetism: Honors and awards Irving was awarded the Gondwanaland Gold Medal by the Mining, Geological, and Metallurgical Society of India, the Logan Medal by the Geological Association of Canada (1975), the Walter H. Bucher Medal by the American Geophysical Union (1979), the J. Tuzo Wilson Medal by the Canadian Geophysical Union (1984), the Arthur L. Day Medal by the Geological Society of America (1997), and the Wollaston Medal by the Geological Society of London (2005). He was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC) in 1973 and of the Royal Society of London (FRS) in 1979. In 1998 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and in 2003 invited to be a Member of the Order of Canada. He received an honorary degree from the University of Victoria in 1999. References Further reading 1927 births 2014 deaths British geophysicists British geologists Canadian geologists Canadian geophysicists Geological Survey of Canada personnel Alumni of the University of Cambridge Wilson Medal recipients Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Fellows of the Royal Society Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Members of the Order of Canada British Army soldiers People from Colne Logan Medal recipients Wollaston