Eric Wilson McMechan was born on 13 August 1910 in Portaferry, Co Down. He was the third child of John Henry McMechan, a farmer and a local magistrate. He studied at the Methodist College and Queen's University in Belfast and there obtained his MB BCh. Moving to London he worked at St Mark's and the London Hospital. He passed the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1938. During the second world war he served in the RAMC at the 104 General Hospital and the Field Surgical Unit No 4 Mediterranean Area with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. Returning to Belfast he became consulting surgeon to the Royal Victoria and Belfast City Hospitals and demonstrator in anatomy at the Queen's University. He was a member of the Belfast Hospital Management Committee, the Moynihan Chirurgical Club, the Association of Surgeons and the Ulster Medical Society. He published papers on fractures of the femur, colostomy and on swellings of the neck. In 1942 he married Miss Healey and they had no children. His main interests were showjumping and gardening and he was vice-chairman of the Rose Society of Northern Ireland. He died in 1980 at the age of 70.