MD (`Bill') Silberberg was born at Branxholme, a country town in the Western District, Victoria. He was educated at Wesley College, Melbourne, entered Queen's College, University of Melbourne in 1901 and later he was a resident medical tutor at the College. He graduated MB BS with honours in 1906 and in the next two years was a resident medical officer and a medical registrar at the Melbourne Hospital. In 1909 he was a resident medical officer at the Children's Hospital, Melbourne; he proceeded to MD in that year. In 1910 he went to London for postgraduate training. He was a clinical assistant to Sir James Mackenzie and later was associated with Sir Thomas Lewis in work on digitalis and on electrocardiography.

With this excellent background training he returned to Melbourne, bringing the first electrocardiograph to be used in practice in Australia. He commenced practice in Collins Street as a cardiologist and also worked at the Melbourne Hospital. A first publication in 1912 was A Brief Account of the Electrocardiograph and its Clinical Application. Later he wrote on cardiac irregularities, published on page 1, column I, number I, of the Medical Journal of Australia on 4 June 1914.

In 1915 he volunteered for service in the Australian Imperial Force. He served in Egypt in 14 Australian General Hospital but in 1916 he was invalided home. In 1919 he was appointed physician to outpatients at Alfred Hospital and continued his illustrious career as a consultant cardiologist. He also worked on the staff at the Children's Hospital and the Repatriation General Hospital. His main work was always at Alfred Hospital and in 1925 he became an inpatient physician. His ability as a consultant and a teacher laid the foundation of the Alfred Hospital's leading role in cardiology. He was appointed a Stewart Lecturer in medicine at the University of Melbourne in this period.

In 1938 he became a foundation Fellow of The Royal Australasian College of Physicians and served on the council of the College from 1938 to 1944. He continued at the Alfred Hospital through the war years and in 1945 retired to continue his consultant cardiology practice until his death in 1959. Over the years he steadily expanded the horizons of cardiology and always retained an interest in new developments. In 1948, while still in full practice, he developed an interest in V lead electrocardiography and soon became proficient in its interpretation.

He always worked long hours; until his retirement from the Hospital he would go by car on country consultations, often into the early hours of the morning, a pattern he expected his young trainees to continue. Bill was always ready to help young physicians starting in cardiology. Many of Melbourne's cardiologists worked under his guidance and generosity in their earlier years. After World War II, he started meetings at his home at regular intervals for cardiologists to discuss cases and give short papers. This pattern was an important factor in the development of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand. He was chairman of the Cardiac Society in 1954.

In 1920 he married Vera Kaye; throughout the years he and his wife maintained a home of considerable warmth, with a happy family life and deep faith. He had two sons, one of whom, Frank, followed in his father's footsteps as a physician. In addition to his professional activities, he took a keen interest in Jewish affairs. Out of a sense of duty, for sixteen years he was president of the Liberal Synagogue. With all these activities, he found time for golf and later bowls.

He was widely read but two books which particularly impressed him were Aequanimitas, by William Osler and The Beloved Physician by McNair Wilson, (a life of Sir James Mackenzie). His original electrocardiograph remained in the Baker Medical Research Institute at Alfred Hospital until 1981, when it was donated to the Science Museum of Victoria. In 1960 the MD Silberberg Memorial Lectureship was endowed by the Australian Fellowship of the Israeli Medical Association of which he had been a founder and a president. It is his memorial in the College.