Bill spent the majority of his childhood in Africa and USA before a family move back to the UK aged 17. He went on to study Pure Mathematics at London School of Economics and Political Science before joining the Royal Navy as a pilot in 1984.
He flew a variety of operational roles in the RN, firstly as a search and rescue helicopter pilot from Prestwick, Scotland and then, after fast jet training, the majority of his operational service was spent as a Sea Harrier pilot operating from HMS INVINCIBLE including two years as Senior Pilot 800 NAS for air defence operations over Iraq, Bosnia and Kosovo. He then worked in the USA from 2001 until 2006 in various roles flying F/A18C Hornet and AV-8B Harrier with USN before transferring to the F35 project team in Washington D.C. Bill finished his military service in 2008 as Deputy Force Commander, Joint Force Harrier.
Bill then initially worked as an independent aerospace consultant before joining Rolls-Royce plc in 2011 as Chief Pilot (Defence Aerospace) based at Filton, Bristol. In 2020, he joined Boeing Test & Evaluation as the UK Flight Ops Safety Lead and his role is the primary aviation safety focal for flight test operations in UK. Bill finished his time with Boeing in summer of 2024 and now works part time as air safety manager and display pilot for Navy Wings.
Bill stays current on a variety of fixed wing, and when able rotary wing types, and specialises in air display flying including various marks of Spitfire, Harvard and Sea Fury with Navy Wings Heritage Flight and other organisations.