Born in Birmingham, Victor Goldman was educated at King Edward’s School and at the Medical School (Birmingham).  He graduated in 1927, being awarded the gold medal in surgery.  In 1935 he became resident anaesthetist at the Royal Free Hospital in London, obtaining the Diploma in Anaesthetics in 1936. He later undertook various anaesthetic appointments in London.

During the Second World War he was initially senior specialist anaesthetist to the Ministry of Pensions, and then adviser in anaesthetics to the Northwest Army India Command until his discharge in 1945. He then undertook various anaesthetic appointments in London, while working on evipan and vinesthene and designing an improved electric laryngoscope and vinesthene inhaler for use in tonsillectomy and dental extraction in children.

Goldman devoted much of his career to the improvement and safety of outpatient dental surgery and in 1958 he reviewed death rates under anaesthesia in dental surgeries.

Goldman is perhaps best remembered for the halothane vaporizer which bears his name, produced in 1959, constructed from a glass vessel normally fitted in a mechanical fuel pump in British Army vehicles to trap sediment.