[1] His father was a winder in the Mynydd Colliery in Gorseinon, and Brinley was one of four children including the academic and Welsh nationalist Alwyn D.
After wartime service in the Royal Welch Fusiliers took his first academic position at Cardiff High School for Boys, where he was an assistant master between 1947 and 1948.
In 1970 he moved to the University of Birmingham, but stayed there only five years,[4] for in 1975, he was appointed as principal of St David's University College, Lampeter,[4][5] the very first principal in the college's long history who was not in holy orders.
He was a Welsh Supernumerary Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford, in 1975–1976 by virtue of his position as Principal of St David's.
[4] In 1981, the University of Wales awarded him an honorary LLD[4] in recognition of his service to the colleges at Lampeter, Cardiff and Aberystwyth.