Born in Eastbourne on 27 September 1908 to D G Gilbert, Headmaster of Roborough School, Eastbourne, Gilbert attended his father's school and then went to St Bartholomew's Hospital where he qualified with the conjoint examination in 1932 and became house surgeon to Girling Ball and Blundell Bankart. He passed the FRCS in 1937 and at the beginning of the war was SHMO at the Belmont Hospital, which became the Sutton Emergency Hospital, until 1942 when he entered the RAMC as a graded surgeon, serving until 1946 when he reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He married in 1938 the daughter of Aleck Bourne, consultant gynaecologist at St Mary's Hospital. They had one son and two daughters, none of whom were in medicine. He died on 16 October 1993.