William Paterson was born in Leeds on 23 January 1917. His father Alexander was a mining engineer. His mother was Mary Hunter. He was educated at West Leeds High School for Boys and studied medicine at Leeds University, where he qualified with second class honours. After junior posts at Leeds General Infirmary, he joined the RAMC as a graded surgeon, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. After the war, he returned to Leeds as an anatomy demonstrator, and passed the primary, but his further progress was held up by a disabling illness caused by war injuries. On returning to surgery, he specialised in ENT surgery and obtained a consultant position in 1957 in South Manchester and North and Mid-Cheshire. He was President of the North of England Otorhinolaryngological Society in 1981. He married Sarah Llywela Susan Phillips (Susan), a doctor, in 1950: they had three sons, Richard, Andrew and David (a consultant pathologist). There are six grandchildren. He died on 28 July 2002 after a long illness.