Brian Bentley

He was an active member of the Society and College of Radiographers, serving on many of its committees and sitting as a council member. He was president in 1981-82.

As chairman of the education committee, he was instrumental in the development of a range of the college’s professional qualifications in areas such as radiotherapy, ultrasound, nuclear medicine, teaching and professional management.

Henry Brian Bentley was born in Batley. He was the eldest son of John Clarence Hayes Bentley and Emily Mary Bentley, and brother to Michael and Barry.

He was educated at Castleford Grammar School.

After completing his training in Leeds, he won the Archibald Reid Memorial Medal in 1964 for a thesis on radiography of the lower limb.

He then added to his qualifications with the Fellowship examination of the College of Radiographers in 1966, a Master of Philosophy degree, a BA, and a Masters in Education.

Following National Service in the RAF at various RAF hospitals including Wroughton, near Swindon, he became the Principal of the School of Radiography at Leeds in 1968 where he remained until 1990, before leaving to head radiography education in the North Thames health region.

Dr Bentley merged four individual schools and the regional school of radiotherapy into a large unit at Charterhouse College, where he became Director, and was a member of the Senate at City University 1992.

In 1979, he delivered the College of Radiographers’ Stanley Melville Memorial Lecture and was also an honorary lecturer in Leeds University’s Faculty of Medicine and external examiner at Dublin University, as well as examiner on various boards at the College of Radiographers.

In 1985, he became a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Public Health and Hygiene.

He left Charterhouse in 1993 and took up a Research Fellow’s post at Leeds University’s School of Medicine and then led the Division of Imaging and Radiotherapy Sciences in their School of Healthcare Studies.

In 1995, he launched Radiography, the College’s international journal of diagnostic imaging and radiotherapy and was editor in chief.

In 2002, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science by City University.

Dr Bentley has been described by his peers as “a legend who had an incredible influence on radiography, especially radiography education”.

Away from radiography, Dr Bentley made an important contribution to his local area,
and was an active member
of his local church where ever he lived, including St Mary’s, Garforth, near Leeds, where
he sang in the choir for a number of years and was on the PCC, Snaith, where he joined
the Prayer Book Society becoming their treasurer and, most recently, St Helen’s in Hemsworth.

He was also an active member of Castleford Grammar School Reunion group and was for a number of years a Governor at Rishworth School Ripponden.

Dr Bentley is survived by Sylvia, his wife of 57 years, their children Alison, Sue and Philip, grandchildren Olivia and James, and his brother Barry.

A funeral service will be held next Thursday, February 20, at 12:15pm at St Helen’s Church, Hemsworth.