George Irvine: Industrial chemist travelled the world

But before becoming a horticultural expert he was a high-flying scientist who travelled all over the world.

George was an industrial chemist to trade and rose up through the ranks to be a consultant.

The modest Greenockian even helped to make synthetic bone and also devised a treatment using charcoal to purify water.

The 82-year-old is an eastender and was brought up in Belville Street and attended Hillend Primary before going to Greenock High School where he excelled at chemistry.

George, who lives in South Lodge near Gourock Cemetery, was a clever student who landed a job as a lab assistant at the bone factory in Greenock, Poynters, established in 1834 to produce charcoal filters from animal bones.

It was based at Shaw's Water Chemical works in Dellingburn Street.

George said: "The firm imported bones from India, Pakistan and Argentina, before 1982 and the Falklands War put a stop to that.

"We did all sorts of tests and chemical sampling but after three years I left because they wouldn't give me day release for college."

George went to Scottish Paints in Renfrew to work and studied at the Paisley Technical College.

He said: "I could have studied highers at school and gone to university but I wouldn't have got the same practical training."

After four years he gained his national certificate in chemistry and qualified in the early 1960s.

He married his wife Janet at St Margaret's Church in Greenock in 1969 and the couple were happily married for over 50 years until she sadly passed away in 2020.

After clinching a job at Rolls Royce in Hillington he stayed there for six years as their process chemist but when there were redundancies in 1971 he returned full circle where he had started, back at the bone factory. There was one major difference.

He said: "Instead of being a lab assistant, I was in charge of the lab. That felt good."

During his career he patented synthetic bone aimed to be used in the bone china market, but there were difficulties in using the man-made material.

He said: "Fifty per cent of bone is used in this market and we were trying to break through but the problem was in the contraction when firing, it was difficult to make the plates the same size."

His water treatment process using charcoal was a bigger success and used by water authorities across the UK.

George said: "We supplied all sorts of companies, Yorkshire Water were one of our customers, it cleaned up their water, made it nice and clear."

When he returned to the bone factory, it had been taken over by Tate & Lyle and the firm was one of three companies on a Technical Process Group where George was appointed as a consultant.

George said: "We traded all over the world, all of the UK, Canada, America, Cuba and Mexico.

"In the 1970s and 1980s I visited America, Norway, Mexico, Colombia and Cuba. You didn't go walk about in Colombia, they'd cut your hand off as soon as look at you.

"I had to go to meetings with the Cuba government because they were customers of the bone factory.

"When you came off the plane, the terminal resembled a turnstyle like a football ground, and the Cuban Army was everywhere.

"They were all driving around in old European cars and there was a lot of poverty.

"You don't step out of line, I felt it was quite tense. I was out on a business visa and when I went to visit the refinery, they took my passport. I was in a strange country, there was no way I could have got home.

"I was at a meeting with all the managers sitting in a circle and I was in the middle. It was quite intimidating."

Luckily George had enough Spanish to order himself a gin and tonic after his ordeal and managed to purchase some Cuban cigars before he left.

George got an excellent early retirement deal at the age of 57 in 1997 and continued to be a consultant for the firm before leaving to start his second career, in horticulture, which he continues to this day.