Robert Pope Melville was a consultant general and breast surgeon in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He was born at Wollongong, New South Wales on 23 May 1913. One of five children, his father, Hector Pope Melville, a school principal and advocate for education, encouraged his sons and daughters to learn. His mother was Beatrice Lillian Melville née Arey. From an early age, Bob always wanted to be a doctor. From country New South Wales townships, the family moved to Sydney, where Bob gained a bursary to Fort Street Boys’ High School, from which he gained entry to Sydney University’s school of medicine. He graduated with second class honours in 1938, and also represented the university at tennis. His first postings were as a resident medical officer at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney and as a junior fellow at the postgraduate school of medicine. With the start of the Second World War he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), in the medical corps attached to the 2/6th battalion. They sailed on the *Queen Mary* to Palestine, where he was a doctor assigned to the jail in Tel Aviv. He spoke little of the war, except the evacuation from Greece, when he was in charge of the walking wounded, bringing up the rear. He returned to Australia and was then assigned to an AIF field hospital in Lae, Papua New Guinea, where he and his 1938 classmate, Doug Sturrock, an orthopaedic surgeon, worked their magic. Straight after the war, Bob sailed to England, to study for the fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons. He was awarded the Hallet prize and the Nuffield travelling fellowship in 1946. He gained his FRCS in 1947. From 1947 to 1949, he was a surgical registrar at Southend Hospital, where he worked under the senior surgeon Rodney Maingot. In 1949, he returned to Australia to be with his father before his death. He became a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1950, where he was on the council of examiners from 1968 to 1973. He was an assistant to Sir Benjamin Edye at the Scottish Hospital in Paddington, Sydney. He later became the senior surgeon there, with the matron Marg Barry and sister Webb presiding. He was also an honorary surgeon at St George Hospital, Kogerah from 1950 to 1973 . Here he was on call for many nights, operating on car crash victims ‘for whatever time it took’. He also operated at many other hospitals, including the Sutherland, the Masonic, Wolper, St Luke’s and Quirindi hospitals. From 1957 to 1961 he was a lecturer at Sydney University. In the mid 1950's he was a founding member of the Prince of Wales Hospital’s special unit for cancer. After his mother died from breast cancer, this became his branch of investigation within that unit. His enquiry into breast cancer took him to America where, in the early 1960's, he met George ‘Barney’ Crile, the pioneering breast surgeon. They were of the same opinion that breast cancer should be treated by removing lumps rather carrying out full mastectomies. As well as general surgery, diagnosing and removing breast lumps, became his specialist field. He was chairman of the management committee during the establishment of the Sydney-Square Breast Clinic (from 1977 to 1978), and surgeon at the clinic from 1978 until the mid 1980's. He was a member of the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia, where he was chairman of the breast oncology group (from 1973 to 1976), vice president (from 1977 to 1979) and president (from 1979 to 1981). He was also vice president of the Medico-Legal Society of New South Wales in 1980. In the 1960's he travelled behind the Iron Curtain, to Moscow, to visit hospitals there. In return, two Russian doctors visited Sydney. From 1968 to 1973 Bob served on the World Health Organization’s international reference center for the evaluation of the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. Bob was made a fellow of the American College of Surgeons in 1962. In his old age, at over 80, he continued to attend at the Prince of Wales Hospital for a morning a week, assisting the younger brigade and looking on as they negotiated new key hole methods and techniques. He was a great surgeon and was much liked and admired by theatre staff and fellow doctors alike. In 1952, he married Judy Gainford (who had been Miss Australia 1947). She supported his efforts while looking after their three children – Robert, Fiona and Douglas. Home was a place where visiting and local doctors enjoyed parties given in their honour. Bob died on 7 July 2003 at the age of 90. This Aussie boy from humble beginnings did his family and country proud. His life of achievement, saving and extending people’s lives, was a mighty, noble effort.