Willie was born on Tayside in 1874. His parents were both Dundonian, his father a Cloth Lapper. William himself having begun as a Boxer in a Jute Mill, then became an apprentice boiler-maker but turned to electricity, variously described through his working-life as well as an Electrician as an Electrical Engineer and an Electrical Linesman. But he was also a footballer, a right-winger, who had begun with junior side, Clydemore, but in 1892  at eighteen joined Dundee Our Boys, the year before it and East End merged to form Dundee F.C., for which he was then to play for another three seasons.

That is until in 1896, first, he completed his trade qualification, second, was awarded a cap, his only one, and was signed from Down South by Bolton Wanderers then in the English First Division. There he was to make forty-nine appearances in basically two seasons before his knee literally started to give-way and in 1899 was released, returning home. Bolton, incidentally, relegated the following season.

However, he had allowed himself to go under the knife in a very early example of sports surgery, it was successful and by October of that same year he was back playing. This time it was briefly for Victoria United in Aberdeen before being signed by Bristol Rovers as it entered the Southern League. However, he made little impression and at only twenty-six, Rovers safely mid-table, he was to hang-up his boots, wed in his home-town and settle into an ordinary life cut sadly short by fate.