My mother, Brenda Lintner, who has died aged 92, was a psychiatrist, a former political activist and a lover of opera and the arts.
Born in Birkenhead, an only child, to working-class parents, James Bird, a docker, and Eveline (nee Pye), a housewife, she taught herself to read before primary school and then passed the 11-plus and attended Wirral grammar school for girls. She became the first girl from her school to be accepted into medical school, and was one of only three women in a class of more than 100 medical students at Liverpool University. She supported her studies through a variety of factory jobs.
After qualification she worked in a number of house and surgical jobs, including at Liverpool Royal Infirmary, but found it all too impersonal and chose psychiatry instead, a decision she never regretted.
In her youth Brenda was an active member of the Workers Revolutionary party. Later she joined the Labour party and wrote articles on medicine and politics for publications such as Socialist Review.
Offered a job in New York, she faced several hours of questioning by US immigration officials on arrival about her political activities. She stayed for two years, leaving when the need to check people’s credit and insurance status before treating them became too much.
Back in the UK there were senior lectureships in medicine at Birmingham and Leeds universities, before another working adventure as a visiting lecturer in Calgary and Nova Scotia, Canada. She returned to the UK, where she met my father, Paul Evans, who became her soulmate, at a pharmaceutical conference in Leicester.
In 1966 Brenda became a consultant psychiatrist at East Ham memorial hospital in London and later at Runwell and Rochford hospitals in Essex. She was particularly interested in adolescent problems and community treatment, setting up several community clinics, including on Canvey Island.
After my father died when I was 10 years old, Brenda raised me as a single parent before finding happiness again some years later with Jiri Lintner, a retired GP, whom she had known since they had worked together on Canvey. They married in 1986 and moved to Dorset.
Brenda enjoyed travelling, combining trips to China, South Africa, Easter Island and the Antarctic with other passions such as opera and Chinese food.
Although she stopped working as a hospital consultant, she continued to be active. She was made a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Royal College of Edinburgh and completed a degree at the Open University. She also wrote two books. The first was for families of people with schizophrenia. The second, Living with Teenagers (difficult ones, was the sub-text), was dedicated to me.
In her last years she moved to Brighton. She is survived by me and her three granddaughters, Alice, Izzie and Jess.
