Bill was born in County Cork, Ireland. His Irish Protestant family fled to England in 1922 during Irish Civil War, when Irish republicans threatened to burn down their house. The family settled in Worcestershire, where Bill went to prep school and Bromsgrove School, before studying history at Cambridge University. In the early 1930s Bill’s mother, older brother and sister all joined the Oxford Group. Bill, like his younger brother, showed less enthusiasm at first, but at Cambridge he met many Oxford Group supporters, and he finally made a firm spiritual commitment to their work that was to last his lifetime.
After graduating in 1937, Bill worked for the Oxford Group in London. During the Second World War he joined up with the Eighth Army in North Africa and commanded a tank in the Battle of El Alamein. His war experiences had a profound effect on Bill, and it was while fighting in Egypt that he decided that, should he survive, he would give his life to helping prevent the possibility of a Third World War. After remaining in the regular army in Cyprus for a year after the war ended, he set aside more conventional career plans, and devoted himself to the Oxford Group, now called Moral Re-Armament. The work was without salary, and he relied on ‘faith and prayer’, and a small private income.
In December 1946 he married Cherie Oram, and they had two children, Patrick born in 1947 and Judi born in 1952. In the 1950s Bill and Cherie initially based in London and Bristol, before travelling extensively in Germany, France and Switzerland during the post-war reconstruction of Europe. They were involved in ‘behind the scenes’ work to bring about workable independence agreements for Cyprus, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. They helped prepare the Middle Eastern and then European legs of an international tour of a MRA production The Vanishing Island, involved a travelling team of more than 240 people. This was followed by several visits to the USA, and two years working in Brazil. From the mid-1960s Bill became concerned about the deteriorating relations between the Western powers and the formerly-colonised nations of the Middle East. With MRA colleagues he and Cherie devoted themselves to building bridges between those countries, based in London, and still travelling widely. They befriended many national leaders throughout the Arab world, and initiated exchange visits between trade unionists, students and activists across political divides. Bill was respected by many as a track-two diplomat and consultant on Middle Eastern affairs and conflict resolution.
