Originally born in Scarborough, William was adopted when he was a boy by Isaac Ross and his wife, the caretakers of the Primitive Methodist Chapel who lived at Chapel House, on Chapel Street and had worked on the outskirts of Filey as a farm labourer for the majority of his adult life.

          In March 1916 he was conscripted and chose to join the 65^th Field Ambulance of the Royal Field Artillery; at the end of his training in January 1917 he was sent to France and later Belgium.  He performed his duties as a stretcher-bearer for the next nine months until he himself was killed in action.  He was buried in Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Poperinge, Belgium.