Renfrey Gershom Burnard born in Adelaide in 1882, of school-teacher parents, was third in a family of five. Two did medicine, and one became a doctor of music.

Renfrey graduated in Adelaide in 1904. He worked in several country practices and was at Naracoorte when World War I broke out. He served in France from 1916 to 1919, with the 27th Battalion and 7th Field Ambulance, and played some part in saving the life of private Tom Playford, who became a chess opponent, a friend, and later, the longest serving premier of South Australia. He moved to a busy suburban Adelaide practice in 1929.

He was a voracious reader with a preference in his practice for medicine. He had an urge for further training, but family commitments, the Great Depression, and an almost total disregard of and contempt for money matters prevented him from satisfying this yearning until 1937, when he passed his MRCP at the age of 55 years. Probably wisely, he continued in general practice, with an increasing leaning to medicine. Soon after his return to Australia he joined other practitioners in his district in forming the Western Clinic, one of the earliest group practices in Australia.

World War II brought extra work in the practice as well as some military duties, but he apparently thrived on hard work because he lived to be 89. He had a good tenor voice and loved to sing, and was a knowledgeable philatelist. He was a keen churchman with a strong Christian faith in God and in his fellow man. He was very trusting, and, particularly in the Depression, was an easy 'touch' for the down and out. In his practice, nothing was too much trouble. His time, day and night, belonged to his patients. He was popular and truly the beloved physician.