Gordon Bryden was a senior lecturer and consultant urologist at the University of Sheffield and the Royal Hallamshire Hospital. He was born on 7 November 1965 in Paisley, Scotland. His father, Archie Bryden, was a virologist, his mother's maiden name was Hunter. His parents moved south when he was two years old and he was educated in England. He completed a BSc in medical sciences at St Andrews, and then studied medicine at Manchester. After qualifying, he did junior posts in London, Preston and Manchester, and then specialised in urology, going through the specialist rotation in Manchester before becoming a clinical lecturer at the University of Manchester in 1997. He completed a thesis on carcinoma of the prostate which gained him his doctorate. He was appointed senior lecturer and consultant urologist at the University of Sheffield and the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in 2001. His ambition had always been to be a clinical academic, but he was a popular and caring clinician, as well as being active in research and a popular teacher of students and junior doctors, winning one of the College scholarships for his department. He married Daniele née Ashley, who worked with him as his anaesthetist. There were no children. He died on 9 July 2002 from the aftermath of a closed injury of the pancreas caused by an accident when playing cricket.