William (Bill) was born in Rimu, a tiny settlement near Hokitika on the West Coast, the youngest of five children.

His father worked on the Rimu dredge and Bill’s early years were spent in the lovely countryside of this tight-knit community where half the folk were aunts, uncles, or cousins.

This idyllic existence was rudely disrupted when he won a scholarship to St Bede’s College in Christchurch. Bill did well at St Bede’s. He played in the First XV and First XI, and was Dux in 1940.

He started a law degree at Canterbury College until he was called up to the army in 1941.

He had a short spell in the army on a gun emplacement at Nelson until it was discovered that he had only one good eye. He was then deployed on "Essential Works" surveying the route of the Haast Pass Road, living in tents and battling sandflies. He later returned to this area as a GP.

This stint in the army enabled him to apply for medical school having served his country. He graduated in 1950 and did two years as a houseman at Christchurch, followed by six months at the old St Helen’s. He repaid his bursary by working back in South Westland. This confirmed his decision to become a GP.

Off to England as a ship’s surgeon he did the D.C.H. from Great Ormond St and then did hospital and GP locums. Whilst in Lincoln, he met and subsequently married Eileen.

Returning to New Zealand he joined a practice in Pukekohe swearing he would never sit another exam. However such was his obstetrical involvement that he studied for the Dip. Obstet. when the course started in Auckland. Bill was an early Fellow of the College of GPs and took a full part in its teaching activities as an obstetric trainer as well as the increasing load of peer-review functions.

He joined St John Ambulance as Divisional Surgeon in 1961, and was created a Serving Officer of the Order of St John in 1983. Another interest was rugby, and Bill was surgeon to the Pukekohe Rugby Club and the Counties Rugby Union, caring for players in the days before sports medicine was even heard of.

He was one of the original joggers in Pukekohe and reluctantly took to walking when he was 75. Bill served on the Board of Governors of Pukekohe High School, and he was a member of the Divisional Disciplinary Committee during the 1980s. Bill was also a deeply spiritual man—he served St Patrick’s Church as a parish councillor and attended daily mass until two weeks before his death on 28 December 2004, aged 81.