Freddy Durbin was born in Ealing on 23 January 1913, the son of Frederick William Durbin, a farmer and grocer, and Florence Albertine, née James. From the Merchant Taylors' School he went to St Thomas's Hospital, where he won the William Tite scholarship in anatomy and physiology. After basic surgical training he went on to become registrar at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital in Oswestry. At the outbreak of war he joined the RAMC and served first in France and later in Egypt where, in 1941, he contracted poliomyelitis and was invalided out of the army. On returning to England in 1942 he became deputy director of the Rowley Bristow Orthopaedic Hospital, and chief assistant to the orthopaedic department at St Thomas's. In 1946 he went to Exeter to join Norman Capener at the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital. Two years later he set up the accident service at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital. A Nuffield Travelling Scholarship in the same year took him to North America, and he became one of the first ABC Travelling Fellows of the British Orthopaedic Association. A tireless worker in spite of the residual disability from polio, he undertook a huge clinical load, and also found time to make important contributions to the management of slipped femoral epiphysis as well as injuries of the cervical spine. He was responsible for founding the South-West Orthopaedic Club, became President of the Section of Orthopaedics of the Royal Society of Medicine, and in the British Orthopaedic Association he was Chairman of the accident services subcommittee and a member of its executive. In 1966 he founded the surgical training exchange scheme with Professor Josef Mulier of Louvain, as well as a charitable trust to promote joint research between the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital and the School of Engineering of the University of Exeter. He made many contributions to the literature on orthopaedic topics. A former powerful second row forward in the St Thomas's XV, Freddy Durbin became a keen sailor, sailing Fourteen Foot Internationals and later a Nicolson 26. He died on 19 May 1993, survived by his wife Sue, née Norton, and children Peter, a solicitor, Valerie, a consultant physician, Mary, a personnel manager and Gillian, a magistrate and former St Thomas's nurse.