Gilbert Reynolds Troup was born in Christchurch, New Zealand and educated at Melbourne Grammar School. After studying accountancy and learning the art of tea-planting in Ceylon, he eventually decided to enter the medical profession. Before graduating MB BS in 1922 at Melbourne University he was elected president of the Medical Students' Society.

After serving as a resident medical officer at the Royal Perth Hospital, he commenced private practice in Subiaco in the metropolitan area. General medicine was always his interest and he was soon appointed as a junior honorary physician to the Royal Perth Hospital. In 1930 he went to London where he gained his MRCP. Whilst he advanced rapidly as a physician, he had always shown great interest in anaesthetics. The combination was fortunate and he applied the basic principles of both with great and increasing success. By 1930, with a busy general practice, his obligations as an outstanding physician at the Royal Perth Hospital and the increasing demands on his time for anaesthetics, a review became an urgent necessity. With great regret he withdrew from general practice.

In Great Britain he came under the influence of that master of anaesthetics, Ivan Magill and was the first person to introduce his methods to Australia, whilst persistently refusing to take credit for so doing. At the Mayo Clinic he studied the methods of JS Lundy, then director of anaesthesia, and realising the importance of cyclopropane, introduced this closed method to Australia.

This long association of anaesthetics and consultant medicine brought honors almost equally divided. He was appointed vice-president of the section of pharmacology, therapeutics and anaesthesia, BMA annual meeting, 1935, and in the same year published in the Medical Journal of Australia, `Anaesthesia in America'. Elected FRACP in 1938 he was also elected president of the Australian Society of Anaesthetists of which he was a foundation member. Post-war, he was elected FFARCS (England) in 1950, and became a foundation Fellow of the Faculty of Anaesthetists of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, where he became a member of the board of examiners. At the same time he was also honorary director of anaesthesia at the Royal Perth Hospital; honorary consultant anaesthetist at the Princess Margaret Hospital for children; honorary anaesthetist to the tuberculosis branch of the Public Health Department of Western Australia; and senior anaesthetist to the Repatriation General Hospital, Hollywood. But despite this he still held the appointment of honorary inpatient physician to the Royal Perth Hospital with distinction.

During the 1939-45 War he served as DADMS Western Command 1940-41, and then 1941-43 as officer commanding the medical division of the 2/12 Australian General Hospital in Ceylon with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. This was followed by a similar position in 110 AGH at Hollywood, Western Australia until 1944, when he resumed his civilian practice, and incidentally, was elected a member of the council of the BMA branch. He was also a member of the state committee of The Royal Australasian College of Physicians 1938-51 (less war service), its secretary 1944-47 and chairman 1949-50. On his retirement from the Royal Perth Hospital he continued as anaesthetist to the Perth Chest Hospital, giving anaesthetics to within a short period of his death.

A review of his remarkable career recalls the man himself. Of impeccable integrity, with a great compassion for his patients, he was dedicated to improving their comfort by the best possible understanding of their problems. His loyalty and support of his colleagues were evidenced by his ready help and encouragement to his juniors, both medical and anaesthetic.

Beyond his family, social activities held little attraction and he always shunned publicity. Never physically strong, in later years rheumatoid arthritis and an old elbow injury increasingly limited his activities. Nevertheless, he acted as anaesthetist to the first thoracic surgical team to visit Papua and New Guinea in 1956. In relaxation, fishing and carpentry were delightful and satisfying hobbies.

A surgical colleague said that Western Australia's public had lost a doctor dedicated to their welfare, his colleagues a wise counsellor in the fields of medicine and anaesthesia and his family and intimate friends something far beyond the ordinary definitions of friendship and loyalty.