William Lindsay Elrick, the son of William Elrick, a public servant, and of Margaret Mary May (née Lindsay), was born on 20 February 1927, in Melbourne, Australia. After early education at Coburn Primary School and University High School, Melbourne, he entered the University of Melbourne, and graduated in 1949 with honours in surgery and obstetrics. After a resident appointment at the Royal Hobart Hospital, and a demonstratorship of anatomy at Melbourne University, he worked at the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, before going to England. His further surgical training was at Cheltenham, the Bristol Royal Infirmary and the Cardiff Royal Infirmary during which period he passed the final FRCS. On returning to Melbourne in 1958 he was appointed assistant neurosurgeon to the Alfred Hospital, and honorary neurosurgeon to the Austin Hospital, before becoming head of the neurosurgical department at the Alfred Hospital from 1966 to 1987. For a slightly longer period he was consultant neurosurgeon to Aston and Northcote Community Hospitals, and during the Vietnam War the Australian Government seconded him to train Vietnamese army surgeons. He was a member of the Neurosurgical Society of Australia and published only a few papers in his specialty. Outside his professional work he was keen on fishing, shooting and golf. In 1953 he married Jill Jeanette Bitton, a nurse, by whom he had two sons and two daughters. When he died suddenly on 18 July 1987, aged 60, he was survived by his wife and children.