William Gardner (c.1846 – 7 April 1897) was a surgeon in the British colonies of South Australia and Victoria.
William Forrest Gardner was born in Birkenhead, England, in c.1846, the eldest son of (Independent Presbyterian) Rev.
Dr. Gardner, wife, servant and three children arrived in South Australia aboard Condor in March 1850 after accepting a call to take over the newly erected Chalmers Church (now Scots Church) on North Terrace, Adelaide, and served that congregation with distinction until 1868, when he accepted a call to Launceston Tasmania (which appointment got off to a bad start, then deteriorated and ended in bitter hostility).
Gardner was educated at J. L. Young's Adelaide Educational Institution, and entered the English and Scottish Bank, where he worked for several years, before leaving to study medicine at the University of Melbourne, where he had a brilliant scholastic career, then proceeded to Glasgow University, where he studied hydatids for his thesis, which won for him a gold medal as well as his MD.
[3] He received a call from Melbourne to perform a very difficult operation — removal of a cancerous larynx — which had ended in the death of Emperor Frederick of Germany, but in this case, a Mr. Heymanson, successfully.