Douglas Burland Duffy was born on 13 September 1919. He was the son of Bessie Rose Grant and Leontine Joseph Duffy, a manager. He attended Geelong College and Ormond College of the University of Melbourne where he qualified MB BS in 1942 and MS in 1947. He won the exhibition and Beaney Prize in surgery, the exhibition in obstetrics and gynaecology and the Ryan Prize for surgery in 1942. He became senior urologist to the Royal Melbourne Hospital and was President of the Urological Society of Australasia in 1965. At various times he became consultant urologist to the Heidelberg Repatriation General Hospital Melbourne, Box Hill and District Hospital and the Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne. During the second world war he served in the RAAF as a Flight Lieutenant. In 1944 he married Jeanette Robinson and they had one son and two daughters. He was a keen tennis player. He died on 26 January 1982.