Robert Southby was born in Melbourne the son of a dentist and was educated at Scotch College and the University of Melbourne. Successively he was RMO at the Melbourne Hospital, JRMO and assistant pathologist to the Children's Hospital and medical superintendent to that hospital between 1924 and 1925. He then started in general practice in North Melbourne, but continued his association with the Children's Hospital as honorary assistant to outpatients and then physician in charge of the venereal diseases clinic from 1926 to 1933. He was honorary physician to outpatients and then inpatients from 1934 to 1959 and lecturer in paediatrics at the University of Melbourne from 1948 to 1957.

Despite these commitments he served on many committees and boards - the Medical Board of Victoria, the Medical Defence Association of Victoria, the Aborigines Welfare Board and the council of the AMA (Victorian branch) of which he was the most senior president when he died. However Bob Southby is best remembered as a gentle man and a well loved, caring doctor.

In his 'retirement' he became a consultant to the Victorian Department of Health and acted as the secretary to the perinatal mortality committee. His quiet efficiency and wisdom derived from experience greatly assisted the committee's deliberations and enhanced their reports. Shortly after his retirement from that post he was awarded the OBE.

Bob was a quiet man who liked to tell humorous tales to which his friends listened appreciatively. His small patients were at ease with him and he with them. He was an active member of the Wallaby Club, a Victorian walking and talking club founded in 1894. An honour he greatly prized was his honorary life membership of that club. Bob married twice. In 1928 he married Marie HF Whyte with whom he had two sons and two daughters. After Marie died and late in life (1971) he married JA Irene Baker who died not so very long before he did. Both marriages were very happy. Robert Southby, gentle, modest and dependable, will long be remembered by all who had the good fortune to meet him.