Innes Wares Brebner graduated from Edinburgh University in 1906 and was appointed house surgeon of Johannesburg Hospital in 1907. He started in general practice in 1910 and was appointed to the honorary staff of the Johannesburg Hospital as a surgeon in 1915. He served as a Captain in the South African Medical Corps in France in the first world war and was awarded the MBE. After the war he was reappointed to the staff of his hospital as senior honorary visiting surgeon in April 1922. He obtained his FRCS Ed in 1925. Brebner was a legendary figure and a skilled surgeon pioneering amongst other things the operation of pneumonectomy in South Africa. He was held in great affection and respect by his students and was famous for his habitual response to a correct answer from a student 'Ah yes, but why?' He was appointed to the Chair of Surgery at Witwatersrand Medical School in 1931 holding this position until his retirement in 1945. He was consulting surgeon to the Union Defence Forces in the second world war. He was acclaimed both in South Africa and elsewhere. He was awarded an honorary fellowship of the American College in 1938 and of the College of Medicine of South Africa in 1961. In 1945 he was awarded the FRCS, and became Emeritus Professor of Surgery at the University of Witwatersrand in 1949. He retained his interest in surgery during his happy retirement on his farm 'Halfway House' and enjoyed visits from his previous associates and friends for the next twenty two years. In 1973 he donated the Brebner Gold Medal to the College of Medical Sciences of South Africa for excellence in the Fellowship Examination in Surgery. Professor Brebner died at his farm at the age of 95 in September 1977.