From a young age Billy wanted to be a soldier. When he was 8 years old his cousins Joe and Henry were on holiday on the Island and Billy’s mum said she would take them out for a big walk with the dogs. They were all dressed in camouflage gear and they went off to hide and Sue was to try and find them. Using the dogs she managed to flush out Joe and Henry but could not find Billy, eventually with the light fading and Sue getting a bit worried he shouted out from his hide and showed himself, he had been hiding in a tree. 

Jump forward 8 years and he was starting his army career at Army Foundation College, Harrogate. We dropped him off on the 6th of January 2008 and said our goodbyes to him, we were to pick him up in 6 weeks time after the official passing in parade. Well, what a massive change after his first 6 weeks, no longer the slouching teenager now a straight backed man. The next 10 months he went from strength to strength, his old headmaster at junior school had written on his last report “Billy will be a leader of men”. At the end of his time at AFC Harrogate he was a parachute regiment junior sergeant, narrowly missing out on the junior RSM position which he was gutted about.