Brian Billington (usually called Billo), gastroenterologist, music-lover, family man, and gentleman, gave his insight and sense of language to all his activities. His knowledge was wide, yet he never hesitated to say 'I do not know'.

He was born at Birkenhead in England, the only child of Arthur Price Billington, master mariner, and his Australian wife Lilian (nee Cook). In 1935, the family came to New South Wales, and soon afterwards moved to 7 Amarna Parade Roseville, the home in which Brian lived for more than 50 years.

Brian entered the medical school of the University of Sydney, graduating in 1946. In the senior year book, his colleagues described him as ‘An Englishman of Falstaffian proportions, with a hearty laugh, Brian spent his pre-University days at North Sydney [Boys] High, where he distinguished himself by his scholastic achievements. He is interested in music, and many was the time the dissecting room rang to his garbled versions of Gilbert and Sullivan. Brian’s infectious good humour, diligence and ability should assure his success in his chosen career.’

From 1946 to 1961, he held various posts at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney Hospital, the University of Sydney and Balmain and District Hospital, then transferred to the Prince Henry and Prince of Wales Hospitals, where he was chairman of the Department of Gastroenterology until 1981, and honorary clinical lecturer in medicine at the University of New South Wales until 1988. He was also associated with the Langton Clinic, Sydney, from 1961 to 1980. His private practice in gastroenterology was in Macquarie Street, Sydney. In 2004 the endoscopy clinic at Prince of Wales Hospital was named the Billington Centre in his honour.

He spent part of 1948 as medical officer to the Nutrition Research Unit of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land. In 1952, he became a Member, later a Fellow, of The Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP). He held its Joseph Thornton Tweddle Research Fellowship in 1957, after completing the Walter and Eliza Hall Travelling Medical Research Fellowship of the University of Sydney (1952-1955). In 1955 he married Mary Ballard, a nurse, whom he had met at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. They had a daughter and 2 sons.

His memories of Arnhem Land remained strong. He gave his daughter a Yolgnu name, Daemoni, after one of his assistants at Yirrkala. There was a light side to the expedition, as Ray Specht, another member, wrote: ‘Brian was nicknamed "Good Tucker Darwin" by the Aborigines when he arrived at Umbakumba on Groote Eylandt. Camp life and many adventures soon streamlined Brian’s rather plump figure; 6 months later at Yirrkala, his now oversized bathers were lost in the surf, to be retrieved by an Aborigine several kilometres away.’

Brian was a member of the Australian Association of Clinical Biochemists and of the Gastroenterological Society of Australia from 1959, being president from 1975 to 1977. The Society awarded him its Distinguished Service Medal in 1995. He served on a number of RACP committees: the New South Wales State Committee, 1958 to 1972; the Panel of Examiners, 1970 to 1974 the Specialist Advisory Committee in Gastroenterology, 1973 to 1978 (of which he was chairman, 1976 to 1978); and he represented the RACP on the NSW Department of Public Health Medical Committee to Assist the Director-General in the Distribution of Drugs of Addiction to Medical Practitioners, 1968 to 1978, and the Post-Graduate Committee in Medicine, University of Sydney, 1963 to 1974. However, his most outstanding commitment was to the RACP History of Medicine Library and its Committee, of which he was a member 1960 to 2002, and honorary secretary, 1963 to 2002.

In 1986, he was awarded a College Medal for his contribution to the College and especially to the Library Committee. Dr Bryan Gandevia said in the citation: ‘He has brought to the deliberations of the Library Committee the same originality, wit and iconoclastic assaults on the conventional which have endeared him to generations of his students. Who else would seek a physiological explanation for gastric lepidoptera, or observe that nowadays "the only people who write about … pain are philosophers, psychiatrists, sociologists, psychologists and pharmacologists. Practising quacks know instinctively that what is writ is of no help to them …" Our College, and indeed our profession, will always stand in need of those with the same dedication and devotion to their ideals, and the same ability and courage to express their views, as B P Billington.’

Billo retained his love of things English, especially the music of British composers. He also kept his love of English food, maintaining that he had the eating habits of a six-year-old; favourites were chocolate, roast duck, corned beef, potato chips, and diet coke. Music, especially opera, was his great love; he called himself an operamaniac. Certain passages made the tears flow down his cheeks. On the other hand, he did not hesitate to criticise a performance which he found boring or badly sung, and he did not hesitate to walk out of a performance. He approached things medical, the RACP library, and its librarians in the same discerning way – which was not always pleasing to the recipients, until one became used to and valued the honest assessments, and especially valued praise given, so that one tried to perform to the level of his expectations.

Billo had a stroke in 2002, which kept him wheel-chair bound. It was a surprise to his family and friends that he bore the restriction with patience. His activities revolved round the wheelchair: listening to music, reading (including the latest gastroenterological literature), watching opera, classical films, and the cricket on Foxtel, perceptively observing the life going on around him in the nursing home, and enjoying visits to the opera and family celebrations. He was always interested to hear of RACP activities, and was available for the discussion of problems, because his wonderful mind retained its clarity to the end.

On Thursday, 29 July 2004, he slipped while manoeuvring into the wheelchair, and fractured a femur. He died from heart failure 8 days later in Manly Hospital. He is survived by his loving daughter and sons, their spouses, three grandsons and a granddaughter. His beloved wife, Mary, had died from cancer in 1986.