Eric Coldrey was born in London on 13 April 1901, the son of Arthur Algernon Coldrey and his wife, Florence, née Shearsmith. He was educated at the Tollington School in London and received his medical training at St Bartholomew's Hospital where he was Brackenbury and Baly Scholar. He became a house physician on the medical unit and then a house surgeon at the Metropolitan Hospital after qualifying with the Conjoint Examination in 1922 and the London MB one year later. In 1924 he achieved the London MD, and the FRCS and the Diploma of Public Health. He was appointed as consultant surgeon to Rotherham Hospital in 1926 where he worked until his retirement in 1961. During his career in Rotherham he became Chairman of the local BMA branch, and also a Feoffee of the Common Lands of Rotherham. He wrote an article on the conservative management of acute appendicitis, and continued his interest in both sport and philately, but his main concern was his surgical work. In 1925 he married Eleanor Isabella Gardiner, a doctor's daughter, and they had three sons; the eldest, Peter, became a consultant anaesthetist in Wales. He died on 20 March 1985.