I first met George Robbie late in 1946, both of us having been demobilised from the RAAF and having taken up registrar appointments at Royal Hobart Hospital to resume postgraduate training, interrupted by the War. There was then no medical school in Tasmania and all resident medical staff were recruited from the mainland, the lure being the promise of a wide clinical experience with significant responsibility and an appealing environment in which to live. There was not the degree of supervision by visiting medical staff which we had known in our teaching hospitals, so that we were obliged to learn quickly.

A large man physically, George was possessed of an alert, educated mind, a quick wit, an ability to see humour in most things and an urge to make the most of every occasion. He entered into every activity with the utmost zest and enthusiasm, be it organising a social function or the management of a difficult medical problem. Yet he had an innate gentleness and compassion when dealing with patients, which caused him to be much loved and respected.

He passed the Membership examination in 1947 and in his usual derogatory fashion, he maintained that wearing the tie of the University Club and the RSL badge at the clinicals was the crucial factor. He then set about coaching me for the 1948 examination and so earned the distinction of being Hobart's first clinical tutor.

The most lasting impression of George Robbie is that of a competent diagnostician, the result of thoroughness in history taking and physical examination. Following a period as medical superintendent at Royal Hobart Hospital, he entered private practice but retained his links with the hospital as a visiting inpatient physician. He was honorary secretary of the Tasmanian state committee of the College between 1952 and 1954. He died suddenly at the premature age of forty-five years.

In retrospect, he did not achieve in Hobart the full potential that might have been expected from a person with his talents. He had a flair and brilliance which would have flourished in the competitive climate of a teaching hospital. He would have been a superb clinical teacher if the medical school at Hobart had been established earlier.