William was born in 1895. An electrical engineer, a Quaker, and involved in the Adult School movement, he lived in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire. In May 1915 he began work for the Friends’ War Victims Relief Service in France, transferring to the Friends’ Ambulance Unit and working on an Ambulance Train. It appears that in early 1916 he applied to the Military Service Tribunal at Rugby, Warwickshire, and was allowed exemption from military service conditional on continuing work in the FAU. He was admitted to No 7 General Hospital (British Army, France) with a serious unspecified illness, before dying there on 2 May 1917.

He is buried in Souvenir Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France, IV B, Grave 70.