Eric Olof Lundholm was born in 1915 in Modderfontein, in the Transvaal, South Africa. His parents were Goesta Lundholm, a chemist, and Dr. Agnes Barr Auchencloss. His great-grandfather, Olof Lundholm, was personal attendant to Carl XIV Johan, King of Sweden. As Master of the Household he served the Swedish Court for 68 years and throughout the reigns of four Swedish monarchs, and was awarded the Vasa Order in 1864. Lundholm's grandfather, Carl Olof Lundholm, a noted engineer, was an associate of Alfred Nobel who asked him to manage his new fulminate of mercury plant at Westquarter, near Falkirk, in Scotland, and was then appointed Manager of Nobel's Explosive Company at Ardeer, near Stevenston. Goesta Lundholm, earlier a chemist with the British South African Explosive Co. Ltd. became Superintendent at the ICI Detonator Factory at Westquarter.

The young Eric Olof Lundholm received his early education in Modderfontein, and then with the family's move to Scotland, his secondary education was provided at Falkirk High School. Glasgow University followed, and in 1937 he graduated B.Sc. First Class Honours in Geology, and became Baxter Demonstrator in Geology. In 1939 he enrolled at Glasgow Medical School but after the outbreak of war he was called up in August 1940 into a chemical warfare training battalion, Royal Engineers. He was commissioned in June 1941 and posted to a Boring Unit R.E., and saw service in the Middle East, first unblocking oil wells at Kirkuk, cemented by the Allies against possible German advance, thereafter on water supply development by bore-holes.

On demobilisation in February 1946, Lundholm resumed his medical course, graduating M.B. Ch.B. at Glasgow University in July 1950. One year as House Surgeon and House Physician was followed by specialising in Psychiatry, and he took the Diploma in Psychological Medicine (DPM) of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ireland in 1953. In April 1960, Eric Olof Lundholm married Dorothy Vida Henning, B.A. M.Sc. (Geography, Trinity College, Dublin) who was an Assistant Lecturer in Geography at Glasgow University and subsequently became a Medical Artist, working in the Anatomy Department, illustrating professorial writings.

Dr. Eric Olof Lundholm retired in July 1980 after working in psychiatric hospitals in West and East Scotland with special interests in therapeutic communities, individual and group psychotherapy and psychogeriatric medicine. He lives in Edinburgh.