My brother, Patrick Curran, who has died aged 79, was a civil servant who spent 40 years working his way up in the Department for Education.
He played a vital part in establishing the UK’s Public Lending Right in 1979, reforming the Schools Council and the secondary schools examinations system, developing the landmark Children Act 1989, helping to create Ofsted in 1992 and promoting important schemes for early childhood learning in the late 1990s.
He was born in Limerick, Ireland, to Norah (nee Kennedy) and Richard Curran, who emigrated to England with their two young sons in 1947 in search of a better life. Our family settled in East Acton, west London, after our father joined the prison service. He was attracted by the accommodation on offer in those difficult postwar years and was posted to Wormwood Scrubs.
Patrick joined the civil service aged 18, straight from Gunnersbury Catholic grammar school. In 1964 he married Patsy Byrne and they settled in Sunbury-on-Thames in Surrey. My brother became passionate about preserving Sunbury’s unspoilt riverside character and was central in setting up the Lower Sunbury Residents’ Association in 1972, which he also chaired.
Through the association he led many local campaigns, including one against a proposed new bypass through Sunbury, and another against the controversial Heathrow-Gatwick large helicopter link, which began operating in 1978. Its licence was revoked in 1986.
In 2000 he was appointed OBE for his services to education
A keen amateur footballer into his 30s, Patrick retained active sporting interests throughout his life. He co-founded a local cycling group that undertook a number of long-distance charitable expeditions across Europe and Australia and also took up long distance running in his mid-50s, completing three London Marathons in his later years before developing dementia.
He was a supporter of the London Irish rugby union team and of Blackpool FC, a town with which he had no particular connection, save having been taken as a child to his first football league match at Stamford Bridge, and been captivated for life by the celebrated 1950s Blackpool team of Matthews, Mortensen et al playing against Chelsea that day.
He is survived by Patsy, their daughters Catherine and Juliette, a grandson, James, and his two brothers, Noel and me.
