Obituary. 149 



ME. WILLIAM GILLBEE, M.R.C.S., ENG. 



Died 4th January, 1885. 



Mr. Gillbee was a native of Hackney, near London, and was 

 60 years of age at the time of his death, which took place on 

 the 4th of January of the present year (1885). His general 

 education was conducted at Edinburgh, where also he attended 

 the lectures on hospital practice qualifying him for examination 

 by the London College of Surgeons, the diploma of which he 

 obtained in 1848. He came to Australia in the following year, 

 but did not then remain here, as he was attracted by the news of 

 the gold discoveries in California, whither he repaired, and there 

 remained two years, practising in the then unsettled mining com- 

 munities of the very Ear West. Returning to this part of the 

 world, after experiencing somewhat romantic adventures both in 

 the Pacific States and on board ship, he at once settled down in 

 Melbourne, where he continued in the steady practice of his pro- 

 fession until the latter part of 1883, when his failing health 

 induced him to visit the old country. In 1853 he was elected 

 one of the surgeons of the Melbourne Hospital, an appointment 

 he continued to hold for twenty-two years, and the duties of 

 which he performed with singular fidelity. In 1855 he assisted 

 in founding the Medical Society of Yictoria, and in the same year 

 he took a prominent part in bringing about the fusion of the 

 Philosophical Society and the Victorian Institute, which con- 

 jointly became the Philosophical Institute, and afterwards, at a 

 later period, the present Pv-oyal Society of Yictoria. Mr. Gillbee 

 was a member of the Council of the Royal Society for several 

 years, and in 1864 was elected vice-president. In 1859 he was 

 elected on the Exploration Committee, a body which had the 

 onerous duty of directing the ill-fated Burke aad Wills Expedi- 

 tion. Although Mr. Gillbee was not a frequent contributor to 

 the Transactions of this Society, he was for many years an active 

 working member, and frequently took part in the discussions at 

 the meetings. 



In 1855 he helped to commence the Australian Medical Journal, 

 a publication in which he took a warm interest, and to whose 

 pages he was a steady contributor. In 1865 he helped to found 

 the Medical Benevolent Association of Yictoria; in 1879 he took 

 part in establishing the Yictorian Branch of the British Medical 

 Association, of which he was chosen first President. He had in 

 1863 been the President of the Medical Society of Yictoria. In 

 1853 he was one of about a dozen others who started the 

 volunteer movement in this colony, and he eventually became 

 Surgeon-Major of the Yictorian Forces. In 1872 he was elected 



