Bill attended elementary school in South East London and then Catford Central School. Unusually for the 1930s, Bill went away on two school trips: when he was about ten to Eype, near Bridport and at central school to Norway and Denmark even though the cost of it was more than his father’s wages for a week. For the first three years of his Central school course Bill studied history using the ‘lines of development’ method which he describes in interesting detail. He then did School Certificate in one year, and left school at fifteen. After the war he worked for the Ministry of Technology and later the Ministry of Defence.