Born at Elton Hall, Sandbach, Cheshire on 16 June 1876, the eldest son of Charles Billington. He was educated at Sandbach Grammar School and at Wellington College, Salop (Wrekin school), where he became head of the school and acted for a time as secretary to Sir John Bayley, its master and founder. He began his medical studies with a scholarship at Mason College, Birmingham, where amongst other distinctions he won the Ingleby scholarship in gynaecology. He afterwards entered King's College, London, and in 1899 graduated at London University with first-class honours and the gold medal in obstetric medicine. Returning to Birmingham he served at the Queen's Hospital as house physician to Dr Arthur Foxwell and as house surgeon to Prof C Jordan Lloyd and became acting resident pathologist at the General Hospital. In 1902 he was elected surgeon to out-patients at the Queen's Hospital, where he was surgeon from 1913. He was appointed professor of surgery at the University of Birmingham in 1924, holding the chair jointly with Seymour Barling, FRCS. He joined the first southern general hospital at the beginning of the war in 1914, and was placed in charge of the centre for jaw and facial injuries. In 1913 he was largely instrumental in founding St Chad's Hospital, the first institution in this country to provide expert medical and surgical treatment with skilled nursing for patients who could not afford high fees and were yet unwilling to enter a hospital supported by voluntary contributions. He devoted much time and thought to hospital administration, was chairman of the medical committee of the Queen's Hospital, and worked hard in the cause of the hospital centre for Birmingham University. He was a past president of the Midland Medical Society. He married in 1906 Winifred Cooke of Edgbaston, who survived him with a daughter and three sons. He died on 7 February 1932 at 58 Harborne Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham. Billington was cool and dexterous as a surgeon, neat as regards his technique and scrupulous in detail; as a colleague he was helpful in advising and guiding his juniors; as a lecturer he was clear and convincing; as a teacher able and painstaking. Publications:- *Moveable kidney; its etiology, pathology, diagnosis, symptoms and treatment*, London, 1910; 2nd ed 1929. Indications for nephropexy. *Brit med J*. 1909, 1, 1055. Surgical treatment of chronic ulcer of the body of the stomach. *Ibid*. 1922, 2, 34. Bone-grafting of the mandible with a report of seven cases, with H Round. *Brit J Surg*. 1926, 13, 497.