William George Dismore Upjohn was born in Narrabri, New South Wales, Australia, on 16 March 1888. His mother Jane Mackenzie was the daughter of a cabinet maker and his father, George Dismore Upjohn, was a jeweller. He studied at Wesley College, Melbourne, and at the University of Melbourne where he won numerous scholarships and prizes. He became Stewart Lecturer in anatomy at the Melbourne Hospital 1910-11 and resident to the Children's Hospital in Melbourne 1911-12. He eventually became lecturer and examiner to the University of Melbourne Medical School. During the first world war he served as a Lieutenant-Colonel in the RAAMC in the Dardanelles, France, Belgium and Italy. Returning to Australia he was on the Council of Melbourne University and its Chancellor for a while. He was a former President of the British Medical Association, Victoria Branch, and a founder-member of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. He published numerous articles in the *Medical journal of Australia* and in the *Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps*, a book on *Human osteology* and various orations and addresses. He married Norma Withers in 1927 and they had two daughters, a son who died aged sixteen, and another son, John, who is also an FRCS. He was very interested in music and literature and enjoyed sports in his youth. He died on 18 January 1979 and had only retired from practice the previous September in his ninety-first year.