Born on 16 March 1868, the first child and only son of Richard John Webb, superintendent of police, and Kate Corbett, his wife. He was educated at Bendigo High School, graduated MB, BS at the University of Melbourne, and acted as resident surgeon at the Stawell Hospital in 1889. Whilst he held this post and when cerebral localization was still in its infancy, he diagnosed correctly a cerebral abscess which he opened after trephining. Coming to England he continued his medical studies at University College Hospital and afterwards at the Middlesex Hospital. He returned to Australia after being admitted FRCS, bought a practice at Footscray, carried on surgical work at Collins Street, Melbourne, and was elected surgeon to the Williamstown Hospital. In 1910 he made a second trip to England, and on his return to Australia warned his friends that a European war was impending. When the war began in 1914 he was appointed surgeon to the Australian Forces and served for two years in Egypt and England, before proceeding to France with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He went back to Melbourne at the end of the war, and in 1919 he was chosen president of the Victoria branch of the British Medical Association. He married on 5 April 1898 Mabel E. Hopwood, who survived him with two daughters and two sons. He died at Hawthorn, Victoria, on 4 September 1929.