Eric Harris was born on 18 October 1904 in Harbledown, Canterbury, the son of a pharmacist. He was educated at the King's School, Canterbury, and the Middlesex Hospital. He qualified MRCS, LRCP in 1927 and MB, BS in 1929, and he became FRCS in 1941. During the war, he held temporary appointments as ENT surgeon to the Connaught Hospital, Walthamstow, and Hillingdon Hospital and he later became consultant ENT surgeon to the Hampstead General Hospital, St Andrew's Hospital, Dollis Hill, Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children, Hackney and Hounslow Hospital. After he retired, he was appointed senior lecturer in anatomy at the Royal Free Hospital Medical School, a post he held until his 78th year. He was a senior Fellow of the British Association of Clinical Anatomists and honorary consultant surgeon to the Royal Masonic School for Girls for 25 years. Golf was his favourite recreation. He married Hilda Dorothy Innis on 2 March 1941. They had no children. He died on 28 September 1984, in his 80th year, survived by his wife.