Born in Portsmouth in 1888, father-of-two William worked as a boatman at Portsea. He joined the Army Service Corps before the war, and was in France by late summer 1914 – entitling him to a 1914 Star. He fell ill and was moved to Maghull, where he died in March 1915 of ‘exhaustion and melancholia.’ He shares his headstone at St Andrew’s Church with Hugh Dempster.