Brendan Devlin was born in Britain of Irish parents; he used to joke that his mother was returning to Ireland when she went into labour. His early life was spent between Waterford, where his grandfather lived, and Lancashire, where his father was a general practitioner/surgeon who was active in local politics.
Brendan graduated from Trinity College in 1957 with a concurrent BA in Public Administration and Political Science, a harbinger of his future sociological interests and their application to medicine (he proceeded to MA in 1960). He went on to take his MD and MCh., as well as fellowships of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and of England. Throughout his career he was awarded many honours and fellowships, in particular the Haughton Prize, the William Halloran Bennett medal and the Arris and Gale lectureship. Among many others he delivered the Bradshaw and Abraham Colles lectures and was Huntarian Professor in 1997. His publications straddled the entire field of surgery with special interests in day surgery, stoma care, hernia repair, surgical audit and health economics. His recently published book, The Management of Abdominal Hernias, is essential reading for all general surgeons.
He was appointed consultant surgeon to Stockton/Thornaby and Children's Hospital in 1970 and was instrumental in their amalgamation and in commissioning the flagship North Tees General Hospital in 1974, a task which experience in Dublin has shown to be extremely contentious. Perhaps his contribution of most current interest was in setting up the confidential enquiry into peri-operative deaths (CEPOD) in 1982. This report, published in 1987, focused attention on the occasional shortcoming in particular of emergency surgery, drawing attention to the need for reform not only within the profession but also in terms of resources and training. This experience and the whole area of medical and surgical audit which it stimulated is now accepted as central to quality assurance and governance towards greater protection of both patients and health professionals. In turn this lead to his directorship of clinical epidemiology and audit in the Royal College of Surgeons of England from 1990-1998, board of Health Quality Review, chair of the Clinical Audit Unit of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, Patient Charter Committee at the Department of Health, member of Council of the King's Fund, president, surgical section, Royal Society of Medicine and chairman of the British Ostomy Association. He joined the editorial board of the British Journal of Surgery in 1978 and was its vice-chairman from 1980-1992. He was on the council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England from 1986 to 1998. In all, his leadership in surgery and administration culminated in his CBE in 1994.
Brendan is survived by his wife, Ann, a medical doctor and laterally justice of the peace, and his four sons, Timothy, James, Peter and Brendan, all with distinguished careers in politics and law, engineering, actuarial science and political analysis. While Tim regained for the Conservatives the parliamentary seat formerly held in the area by Lord Stockton, Harold McMillan, Brendan had a very strong friendship with Dr David Owen, founder of the Social Democratic Party, both being registrars in St Thomas's Hospital in the early 1960s. Family conversations across the Devlin breakfast table must have been stimulating!
Brendan's other connection with Ireland was in training a steady stream of Irish surgeons at registrar grade. Many are now consultants in Dublin and throughout the country and this, together with his other contributions to Irish surgery, was recognised in his posthumous award of a Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland medal at Charter Day 1999. Brendan died on St Stephen's Day 1998. At his medal citation his personal credo was perhaps best summarised in his own words: "My research interests are clinical and particularly the interaction of surgical treatment and technology on social and economic outcomes, at both the micro (patient) and macro (societal) levels, focusing on the problems of equity and effectiveness of clinical interventions." A fitting epitaph to a remarkable surgeon.
TFG and RGKW