Ralph Whishaw was born in Croydon, England, the son of Reginald Robert Whishaw FRCS. In 1904 his father, then a widower, emigrated to Tasmania with Ralph, aged nine, and commenced practice in Macquarie Street, Hobart, next to the Tasmanian Club. The Whishaw family can trace its lineage back to the fifteenth century: another distinguished member was a second cousin of Ralph's, Dr Edward Wilson (whose mother was a Whishaw). Dr Wilson accompanied Scott on his last tragic expedition to the Antarctic. Ralph remembered the cousin's visit to Tasmania in 1910. He was educated at The Friends' School, Hobart, afterwards proceeding to Sydney University. In 1915, whilst he was in third year medicine he joined the AIF and became a staff sergeant in the 7th Field Ambulance serving under Colonel Crowther (later Sir William) (qv) at Gallipoli. In 1917, on the latter's advice, he returned to complete his medical studies with a view to rejoining the AIF.

Soon after Ralph's return to Hobart following his graduation he commenced practice as a specialist physician and soon came to be recognised for his skill and understanding. To further his knowledge he travelled to London, returning from postgraduate studies there in 1935. He brought back with him the first electrocardiograph to be used in Tasmania and ultimately he became a cardiologist of particular eminence, achieving the chairmanship of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand in 1954.

In 1938 Ralph became a foundation member of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. He served as a councillor from 1951 to 1954 and as vice president from 1954 to 1956. Between 1939 and 1962 he contributed richly to the Tasmanian State Committee both as honorary secretary and chairman. As consultant physician and cardiologist he devoted many years of invaluable and loyal service to the Royal Hobart Hospital and the Repatriation General Hospital from 1930 to 1955. His service to medicine was rewarded in 1957 with the CBE and then in 1958 he became a Knight Bachelor.

Ralph served his country again in the Second World War as a major with AAMC in the Middle East from 1941 to 1942. After he returned from the war, he built single-handed a 38 foot 15 ton cruising yacht in his back yard and he sailed the Fortuna in the Sydney-Hobart race on two occasions, in 1947 coming home in fifth place. His subsequent leisure activities included cabinet making and photography and the accompanying photograph is a self-portrait. He pursued his hobbies with the same meticulous attention to detail which he displayed in his clinical practice. In 1921 he married Violet Beckley, who had come across from Victoria with her father who was to manage the Cascade Brewery. They lived happily in a delightful old rambling, secluded home overlooking the beautiful Derwent estuary. Their home was appropriately named Sentosa, a Malayan word meaning "house of peace and contentment". It was a popular rendezvous for physicians both at home and abroad and several senior physicians around Australia sat the written paper for the membership there. Ralph was beloved and worshipped by his patients because of his humanity and humility combined with his sense of humour and sense of balance. His legacies to his residents were a passion for relentless detail in history taking and a reliance on careful bedside methods. He deserved Osler's unwritten title, "The Young Man's Friend". Indeed, he embodied all the best of the Oslerian tradition and particularly did he follow Osler's advice of illustrating with his life, "the Hippocratic standards of Learning, of Sagacity, of Humanity and of Probity."