William McMillan was born in Aberdeen, Scotland on 31 August 1887 and studied at Gray's School of Art in Aberdeen; and at the Royal College of Art in London from 1908 to 1912. He then embarked on a career as a sculptor. He was also Master of the Sculpture School at the Royal Academy Schools in London from 1929 to 1941.

During World War One he served as an officer in the Artists' Rifles. Following the war, he designed war memorials at Aberdeen and Manchester. Other commissions included the East Fountain in Trafalgar Square, London (1948); the Goetze Memorial Fountain in in Regents Park, London (1950); a statue of Alcock and Brown the aviation pioneers, at Heathrow Airport (1966); and portrait sculptures of Sir Walter Raleigh, Charles Rolls and Henry Royce at Rolls Royce and George VI at various locations in London.

McMillan exhibited virtually every year at the Royal Academy in London from 1917 to 1970. He also exhibited at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, and International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers in London; Aberdeen Artists' Society; Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts; Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool; and at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy (ARA) in 1925; a Royal Academician (RA) in 1933; and a Fellow of the Royal British Society of Sculptors in 1932.

He died in hospital in Richmond-on-Thames, Surrey on 25 September 1977 a few days after having been assaulted and robbed in the street which had left him seriously injured.

_{Text source: Art History Research net (AHR net)}