William Hunter Isles was born in Bonnyrigg, Midlothian, Scotland on 17 June 1916, the son of William Isles, a company secretary, and Jessie Isabella (née Sutherland). He was educated at Lasswade School, Midlothian, before entering the University of Edinburgh, qualifying in 1943. His early appointments were as house physician at the Eastern General Hospital, Edinburgh, house surgeon at the Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle, and as senior house surgeon at the Royal Infirmary, Hull. After further appointments as surgical registrar at the George Eliot Hospital, Nuneaton, and as orthopaedic registrar at the Coventry and Warwick Hospital, he passed the FRCS Edinburgh in 1969 and the FRCS in the following year. He worked at the Manor Hospital, Nuneaton, and was appointed consultant surgeon in trauma and orthopaedics from 1976 until his retirement in 1981. His many outside interests included rugby football, golf, fishing for trout and salmon, shooting and hill walking. In 1973 he married Ann Shenstone Ellis, a radiographer, and there were no children. He died on 9 September 1985 at Raigmore Hospital, Inverness, aged 69.