Gurbux Singh was born on 11 February 1935 in Peshawar (now in Pakistan) and grew up in Rawalpindi. His father, Kartar Singh, was a Commissioned Officer in the Indian Hospital Corps (now Army Medical Corps) and played hockey for his Corps team in Rawalpindi.
His early education was at Denny's High School in Rawalpindi. His main sport at the time was badminton but when he moved to Hari Chand School in Lucknow, he took up hockey.
After the partition, the family first moved over to Lucknow, then to Mhow and finally to Meerut. He graduated from Punjab University before heading to Calcutta in 1956.
Gurbux started hockey at the age of 16. He represented Agra University in 1954 - 55 and a year later won the Obaidullah Gold Cup Hockey Championship.
He joined the East Bengal Club in 1957 and helped them win the Beighton Cup for the first time. Gurbux joined Calcutta Customs in 1957 and played for Customs from 1958 to 1965.
He played for the Mohun Bagan Club from 1968 to 1980.
He represented Bengal in the Rangaswamy Cup from 1957 to 1972, captaining the team on many occasions and won the Aga Khan Cup in 1961.
Gurbux made his international debut on 5 June 1961 when he was selected to play against New Zealand during the tour of New Zealand and Australia that year.
He was selected for the International Hockey Tournament in Ahmedabad in 1962 which India won.
After a year's gap, he was included in the team that participated in the 1963 International Hockey Tournament at Lyons in France.
He was a member of the Gold medal winning team at Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games and two years later the Gold Medal team at Bangkok 1966 Asian Games.
He was awarded the Indian National Award ‘Arjuna Puraskar' in 1967.
He led India on a tour to Hamburg Festival, Germany and Japan in 1966, Sri Lanka in 1967 and the Pre-Olympic tournament in London in 1967.
He was the Joint Captain, along with Prithipal Singh, at Mexico 1968 Olympics Games where India won the Bronze medal. Gurbux and India's Harbinder Singh had the distinction of being named in the World X1.
After retiring from playing international hockey in 1968, Gurbux took to coaching and umpiring.
He was awarded his International Hockey Federation Umpiring badge in 1981 and umpired at the Delhi 1982 Asian Games.
He was appointed as the French National Coach in 1974-75 and the following year he was appointed the Indian National Coach for the Montreal 1976 Olympic Games.
He served three terms as a national selector (1973- 78; 1980 - 85 and 2003 - 08)
He was the manager of the Indian team to the 1973 World Cup and the 1983 Champions Trophy.
In addition to these hockey commitments he was a TV/Radio commentator and wrote newspaper reports.
The Government of West Bengal conferred the Banga Bibhushan Award to him in 2013.
He published his autobiography, "My Golden Days" in July 2017.
He still resides in Kolkata (Calcutta), India.