Michael McBrien was a general surgeon with an interest in urology at the West Suffolk and Newmarket hospitals. He was born on 4 July 1935 in Maidstone, Kent to Leo Patrick McBrien, a general practitioner, and Elizabeth Rosemary McBrien née Phillips, the daughter of a farmer, and had three sisters. Michael started as an exhibition scholar at Stonyhurst College, Lancashire in 1948, where he would go on to become head boy and captain of rugby, as well as a notable gymnast and athlete. On leaving Stonyhurst, Michael started an agriculture course at Wye College in Kent, but then decided to study medicine. This would require an A level in physics, which he passed with a distinction in six months, allowing him to go to St Thomas’s Hospital Medical School in London. As well as studying he played lots of rugby during this period, for (at different times) St Thomas’, United Hospitals, Rosslyn Park, London Irish, Kent and the Stonyhurst Wanderers. He also enjoyed athletics and cricket, as well as acting in various hospital variety shows. He maintained a strong affection for St Thomas’ throughout his career. He qualified in 1960 and did three six-month house jobs at St Thomas’, involving 132-hour weeks. Following the encouragement of his future wife Tessa Freeland, whom he met around this time, he decided to become a surgeon rather than join his father’s general practice in Kent. A year’s anatomy prosection followed – his prosected anterior triangle of the neck was copied in *Gray’s anatomy*. Whilst studying for the FRCS exams he took on general practice locum posts in London, Canterbury and Norwich. Michael moved on to registrar training in Kingston (where he performed an appendicectomy in a record 12 minutes), Chertsey, Southampton and Portsmouth. Back at St Thomas’, he learnt about urology, including the transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP). Michael passed both parts of the FRCS in 1967. Michael and Tessa were married in 1964 and had three children: Emma, James and Rowan. The family moved to Suffolk when Michael took a consultant in general surgery job at the new West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds. By coincidence, the surgeon Woodward Mudd lived in the McBrien family home 160 years previously, being apprenticed to Benjamin Lane Clayton who owned the house at that time. Notable professional influences for Michael included working with Ronald Furlong, Dickie Battle, John Skrimshire, Bob Nevin, Hugh Lockhart-Mummery, John Kinmonth and T Mimpriss. In the 1970s Michael published academic papers in the *Lancet*, the *British Medical Journal*, the *British Journal of Surgery* and the *British Journal of Urology*, including ‘The technique of peritoneoscopy’ *Br J Surg* 1971 Jun;58(6):433-6, ‘Leiomyosarcoma of the duodenum’ *Br J Surg* 1971 Sep;58(9):685-9, ‘Lymphography of the testis and its adnexa in the normal and in idiopathic hydrocele’ *Arch Surg* 1972 Jun;104(6):820-5 and ‘Transitional cell carcinoma of the renal pelvis presenting with peripheral neuropathy’ *Br J Urol* 1977 Jun;49(3):202. During the early 1970s a consultant was a generalist who covered all branches of surgery, including urology, which Michael was appointed to introduce. He ran a busy NHS practice in Bury St Edmunds and Newmarket, with outpatient clinics in Thetford and Sudbury as well as a private practice clinic from home. In one particularly noteworthy incident Michael carried out emergency operations on two teenage girls who were severely injured in an attack using a ceremonial sword and left for dead on a country road. Both survived thanks to his cool-headed professional treatment through the night, and he was commended by the judge in the subsequent criminal proceedings. He introduced innovative procedures during his time in Bury St Edmunds, including endoscopic prostate surgery and laparoscopic ‘keyhole’ surgery, as well as a one stop clinic for the diagnosis and management of breast cancer. In later years Michael took up contemporary reconstructive breast surgery using new techniques. Due to the lack of private medical facilities in the area, Michael and his colleagues raised money with local businesses to build a private hospital in Bury St Edmunds, which was opened in 1979 by the Duchess of Gloucester and is now run by the Circle Health Group. Michael served as a governor of this hospital for eight years. Michael was very interested in teaching and training juniors, especially surgical skills and new techniques (for example TURP, laparoscopic cholecystectomy). He was described as ‘an exceptional teacher and trainer’ with an enquiring and questioning approach to surgery, not content simply to accept received dogma. He was a surgical and clinical tutor at the West Suffolk Hospital Postgraduate Centre as well as a university clinical teacher at Cambridge, running local and regional courses for students. He was awarded a Hunterian professorship from the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1973 and elected to the Court of Examiners, serving on regional and national committees for 10 years (five years as secretary), assessing and organising training in UK hospitals. He was also a visiting Royal College of Surgeons of England examiner in Sri Lanka, Cairo and Edinburgh. In 1986 he published *Postgraduate surgery: the candidate’s guide* (London, Heinemann Medical) in collaboration with M A R Al-Fallouji – a comprehensive text for higher surgical examinations and a practical guide for surgical trainees. Michael also co-wrote the step module for the MRCS exam and served on several postgraduate committees at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He also lectured on surgical skills courses run by St Thomas’ and the Royal College of Surgeons of England in London, Cambridge and Norwich. He served six years on the General Medical Council’s professional linguistic assessment board, setting exams for and validating foreign medical graduates. For 10 years he was a medical member of the pensions appeal tribunal in the Lord Chancellor’s department, assessing war veterans for appropriate pensions. He retired from NHS work in 1999 and from private practice two years later. In retirement Michael volunteered at the Wellcome Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, where he taught, lectured and demonstrated to school leavers and students, as well as cataloguing and archiving the exhibits. Michael supported the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland and the Cheselden Club, a forum for St Thomas’ trained surgeons. He and Tessa were also enthusiastic members of the Surgical Sixty Club, a travelling club which visits both UK and overseas hospitals, hosting their own meeting at Bury St Edmunds in 1996. In retirement he enjoyed golf and socialising at the Royal Worlington and Newmarket Golf Club, as well as cricket at Lord’s, shooting, fly fishing, bridge, and a new-found skill of watercolour painting. Over time he was content simply to work in his garden and spend time with his children and grandchildren. Michael and Tessa were married for 57 years and had happy times together, regularly entertaining at home in Suffolk and often travelling to the US, Italy and Switzerland in particular. Michael was a generous host and a charming, enthusiastic, cheerful and positive all-rounder, with an ever-present wit. At the same time, he was not afraid to be different and do his own thing. He could be contrarian at times, often arguing an opposing view, always in pursuit of perfection. He would readily admit that he could not have achieved anything without his devoted wife Tessa, who ran the family home and made everything possible behind the scenes. Michael died on 10 September 2021 at the age of 86.