William Henry Daines Trubshaw was born in Johannesburg in 1908, his father having gone to South Africa during the Boer War and became headmaster of the Mayfair School in Johannesburg. Trubshaw went to King Edward's School and Houghton College, Johannesburg and then came to St Bartholomew's Hospital for his medical education and qualified with the Conjoint Diploma in 1933. He continued his training in a number of hospitals in England and passed the FRCS in 1937. He then returned to Johannesburg to practise surgery there and also in Lusikisiki, and in the second world war he served in a Field Ambulance in East Africa and afterwards in General Hospitals in East Africa and afterwards in General Hospitals in Alexandria, then in the Suez Canal Zone, and ultimately in Tripoli and Italy where he remained till the war ended. He was mentioned in dispatches, and retired with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. After demobilization he was appointed senior assistant surgeon to the Johannesburg General Hospital in 1950, and senior surgeon in 1954. He retired from the hospital in 1968 and settled in Knysna where he lived peacefully for two years till he was struck down by his fatal illness. Trubshaw played a prominent part in the surgical profession having been President of the South African Association of Surgeons for 14 years, and a founder Fellow of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of South Africa, serving on its Council from 1956 till 1965. He had a life-long interest in boxing and for more than ten years was a member of the South African Boxing Board, and his personality endeared him to colleagues and patients alike. When he died in Groote Schuur Hospital on 14 July 1971 he was survived by his wife and their son and daughter.