George Reid was a man who lived every moment of his life. He died when he was thirty-seven, but in that short time achieved many things. He won a scholarship to Wesley College, where he completed his secondary education, and a scholarship to Queen's College, where he was in residence for the duration of his medical course. His undergraduate course was studded with exhibitions and honours, and he graduated in medicine at the age of twenty-one, third in a graduating class of 103.

He was born in Ballarat, the son of Alexander Reid. He did his residency training at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in 1937 and 1938, and in 1939 he joined the staff of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research under the directorship of Dr Charles Kellaway. In 1942 George left the Hall Institute and enlisted in the AIF where he served until 1945 with the Operational Research Section. George basically was a man of peace, uncomfortable in uniform, and was much more at home when he became a teacher and research worker at the University of Melbourne. After being discharged from the Army he accepted an appointment as senior lecturer in the department of physiology, a post he held until his death.

As resident medical officer at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, his inspiration was Dr Leslie (`Treacle') Hurley, one of the greatest consultant physicians of Melbourne, who led him towards a career in clinical medicine. On the other hand, there was the influence of Professor (later Sir) Douglas Wright, who lured him towards medical research. This conflict continued throughout George's life, as evidenced by the fact that he continued to work in clinical medicine as an honorary outpatient physician at Prince Henry's Hospital and an associate physician at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. In 1948 he was awarded a Rockefeller fellowship to work in pharmacology at Oxford University. Again the conflict between clinical medicine and medical research continued and in addition to his work in the laboratories at Oxford, he carried out clinical studies at Hammersmith Hospital under the guidance of Professor (Sir) John McMichael.

In February, 1942, George married Myrtle Perry, a nursing sister at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. They had three sons, Robin, Bruce and Graham. Bruce followed in his father's footsteps, and is a medical practitioner.

Throughout his life George was responsible for numerous publications on a wide range of subjects in many scientific journals. These included vasoconstrictor substances in serum and substances concerned with the clotting of blood. It is ironic that George was a victim of malignant hypertension, and that his research work was so closely related to his own disease. In 1948 he had his first stroke, and on the advice of McMichael he returned to Melbourne to have a bilateral thoracolumbar sympathectomy, which at that time was the only treatment available. McMichael told George's wife that there was a reasonable expectation that a therapeutic drug would be available soon which would be effective in the treatment of hypertension. George had his second, and fatal, cerebral haemorrhage in June, 1952, only twelve months before McMichael's prediction came true in the shape of hexamethonium.

He packed more into his thirty-seven years than most people do in `three score years and ten'. There is no doubt that during his short life he made a major contribution to the advancement of medical knowledge. This was recognised by the award of DSc (Melb) degree a few months before his death, and he was awarded the David Syme Research Prize posthumously.