William Eric Marcus Mitchell was born at Newtownards, County Down, Northern Ireland, on 29 April 1897, the son of Dr John Finlay Mitchell, a medical practitioner and Anna, nee Shaw. His early education was at Campbell College, Belfast, and after leaving school he joined the Royal Irish Rifles, serving in France from 1916 to 1918 and being awarded the Military Cross in 1917. After demobilisation he entered St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School and qualified in 1922. Within a year of qualifying he had passed the FRCS to a surgical unit at St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he served under Sir Holburt Waring, Sir Girling Ball and McAdam Eccles. He was also clinical assistant at St Peter's Hospital for Stone. He passed the MRCP in 1931 and emigrated to Victoria, British Columbia, where he was appointed surgeon to the Royal Jubilee Hospital. On the outbreak of war he returned to England, serving in the Royal Army Medical Corps from 1939 to 1946 as officer commanding a surgical division with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. At the end of the war he returned to his post in Canada, practising general surgery and urology until he retired. He married Catherine Hamilton in 1922 and there was one daughter of the marriage. His outside interests were climbing mountains, photography and painting. He died on 27 December 1990, aged 93.