Born at Tragowel, Victoria, Australia on 3 December 1876, son of John Webster Dunhill, he was educated at Melbourne University, where he won an exhibition, graduated in pharmacy and then took first-class honours in anatomy, physiology, medicine, and gynaecology, and was Beaney surgical scholar. He was lecturer in materia medica at the University, 1911. He practised as a consultant at 105 Collins Street, Melbourne, and was appointed surgeon to St Vincent's Hospital. During the war of 1914-18 he served with the Australian Army Medical Corps, rising to the rank of Colonel, and was appointed a consulting surgeon to the British Army in France. He was three times mentioned in dispatches, and was created CVO and CMG in 1919. He then returned to Melbourne. Dunhill's outstanding work was already well-known in England and had naturally attracted the notice of George Gask, who was eager to promote development in the surgery of the chest. When in 1920 Gask had the opportunity at St Bartholomew's Hospital of forming the first professorial surgical unit in the University of London, he took the bold step of inviting Dunhill from Australia to be his first assistant. Dunhill filled the post with distinction, was appointed an assistant surgeon to the Hospital, and became in due course surgeon and then consulting surgeon. He was also consulting surgeon to the Queen Alexandra Military Hospital, Millbank, and to the London County Council. As early as 1907 Dunhill was reporting successful results in surgical treatment of thyroid disease, and when he was in England in 1912 he addressed the Surgical Section of the Royal Society of Medicine on this subject. It was in these years before the first world war that he established his reputation as the leading thyroid surgeon. He published an outstanding paper in the *British Journal of Surgery* in 1919 on the operation for exophthalmic goitre, and in 1922 he made known his operation for the removal of intrathoracic tumours by the trans-sternal route, which marked a great step forward in the methods of thoracic intervention. Next to Sir James Berry, Dunhill was the pioneer of thyroid surgery in Great Britain, and the younger surgeons, who greatly developed this field between the wars, looked to him for guidance. He surveyed his work in the Lettsomian lectures before the Medical Society of London in 1937; and the Society awarded him its Fothergillian gold medal in 1941. At the Royal College of Surgeons he gave the Arris and Gale lectures on carcinoma of the thyroid in 1931, and on diaphragmatic hernia in 1934, and in 1939 he received the distinction, unique for a surgeon practising in London, of election to Honorary Fellowship, a rank usually reserved for the most distinguished foreign surgeons. The College awarded him the Cecil Joll prize in 1950, and in the following year he delivered the Joll memorial lecture, speaking on thyrotoxicosis. He was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1930, and served for some years on the Council of the British Medical Association. King George V appointed him surgeon to the household in 1928 and an honorary surgeon to His Majesty in 1930, and created him KCVO in 1933. He was promoted to GCVO after his attendance on King George VI in the spring of 1949; the King had appointed him surgeon to HM on his accession in 1936 and Serjeant Surgeon on the resignation of Wilfred Trotter in 1939. Dunhill resigned this appointment on the King's death in 1952, and Queen Elizabeth II appointed him an extra surgeon to Her•Majesty. During the war of 1939-45 he served as consulting surgeon to the Australian Imperial Force, with the rank: of Brigadier. Dunhill married in 1914 Mrs Edith Florence McKellar, née Affleck, but there were no children. Lady Dunhill died suddenly on 31 July 1942, survived by the son and daughter of her first marriage. Dunhill practised at 54 Harley Street and lived at Tragowel, North End Avenue, Hampstead, where he died on 22 December 1957 aged 81. He had a country house at Southington Mill, Overton, Hants, where he enjoyed fly-fishing and was a keen observer of country ways and wild life. He was a small man, and though of strong constitution had to contend with illness throughout his career; his manner was friendly and earnest, and he sought the highest standards both technically and ethically. He was an inspiring, though exacting, teacher. He did not speak or write with ease, but he published many important articles. He did not take much part in the administrative or "political" work of the profession, though his prudence in affairs was held in high esteem. He left £3000 for the surgical professorial unit at Bart's, and £500 each to the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of England and of Australasia, as well as bequests to other charities. He left his decorations to the Royal Australasian College, with a silver porringer given to him by Queen Mary. The inscribed silver cigarette box (*Artistic Possessions* catalogue, Silver no. 130) given to him by the Princess Royal was presented to this College by his executors, and his records of patients were divided between St Bartholomew's Hospital and this College. Principal Publications: On surgery of the thyroid Dunhill made many important contributions from 1907 to 1950, including papers in the *British Journal of Surgery* 1919, 7, 195; 1922, 10, 4; 1930, 17, 424; 1931, 19, 83 (Arris and Gale lectures); 1950, 37, 404 (Joll memorial lecture), and his Lettsomian lectures *Med Soc Trans* 1937, 60, 234. Some surgical experiences at the front. *Med J Aust* 1916, 1, 360. Parathyroid glands in relation to surgery. *Brit med J* 1924, 1, 5. On generalised osteitis fibrosa with hyperparathyroidism, with R C Elmslie. *Brit J Surg* 1932, 20, 479. Carcinoma of the third part of the duodenum, with especial reference to methods of restoring continuity after resection. *Brit J Surg* 1952, 40, 13.