Background
McEachern was born in Albury, New South Wales, the sixth of 13 children of Archibald Hector McEachern and his wife, Rebecca Mary.
McEachern was born in Albury, New South Wales, the sixth of 13 children of Archibald Hector McEachern and his wife, Rebecca Mary.
During World War I, McEachern went on a tour of Australia with the great Australian soprano Nellie Melba. Also in the touring company were Ella Caspers, Ada Crossley and Marie Narelle. McEachern did appear, however, in an array of staged Gilbert and Sullivan Savoy operettas under the batons of the famous conductors Sir Henry Wood and Sir John Barbirolli.
In early 1926, McEachern forged a light-entertainment collaboration with Bentley Collingwood Hilliam, a pianist from Yorkshire.
McEachern was diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus and died after an operation in London on 17 January 1945. His name is commemorated in Australia by McEachern Crescent in the Canberra suburb of Melba.
B. and F. Mackenzie, Singers of Australia (Melb, 1967). "Death of Mr. McEachern", Times (London), 18 January 1945, p 6.
Sydney Morning Herald, 18 January 1945.
"Obituary", Times (London), 19 January 1945, p 8. Print Publication Details: Peter Burgis, "McEachern, Walter Malcolm Neil (1883 - 1945)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 10, Melbourne University Press, 1986, pp 264–265.
