Charles Wilbur Harris was born on 9 December 1894 in Toronto, Ontario and was educated there at Parkdale Collegiate. He graduated with the MB from Toronto University Faculty of Medicine in 1921 and obtained the FRCS in 1926. He held appointments at the Grace Hospital, Toronto, and the Toronto Western Hospital and became Associate Professor of Surgery at Toronto University. In 1953 he became President of the Toronto Academy of Medicine. During the first world war he was a Lieutenant in the RNVR. In 1927 he married Mary Kelly and they had a son, Wilbur, who qualified MD FRCS Canada and a daughter, Barbara, who graduated in sociology. He died on 18 December 1977, aged 83 years.