William was born on 3rd December 1917 to William Matthew and Lydia Martha Smith. At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 the family was living at Maydene in South Woodham Ferrers. William senior was a chartered accountant and senior clerk at St John’s Ambulance and Lydia was trading on her own account as a poultry farmer. Their daughter Dorothy, born 5th December 1920 was employed as an insurance clerk but she was contributing to the war effort as an air raid warden. William junior was also a chartered accountant and senior audit clerk.
William evidently joined the RAF by 1941 as, at the time of his marriage at Wickford to Eileen Billinge on 18th May 1941, the newspaper reported him as being in the RAF. Eileen, full name Marjorie Eileen, was employed as a photographic showroom assistant. The couple subsequently moved to Gidea Park.
In June 1942 William was attached to No 3 Radio School, Technical Training Command, based at RAF Prestwick in Ayrshire, Scotland for training as a radio operator. On 5th June William was part of the four man crew of a Blackburn Botha Mark I plane L6276 which took off on a training exercise. The plane is thought to have developed engine failure and ditched in the sea at Saligo Bay off the west coast of Islay. Initially records suggested that only William died and that the other three were picked up some hours later. However the later records show that the other crew members Pilot Officer Frederick Roe aged 27, Sergeant Robert Burges aged 22 and Sergeant Robert Hutton aged 30 also died. William was just 25.
All four are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial which commemorates more than 20,000 men and women of the air forces of the Commonwealth and those countries of Europe over run by the Germans who gave their lives to free Europe and for whom there are no known graves.
In early 1947 Eileen married Alfred Hulett.