Young, naive, charming and foolish, William is the only surviving child of a local farmer and his wife. William's three brothers and one sister all died at or near birth. William has an obvious crush on Daisy, but she isn't interested in him as she's taken with Thomas (not knowing that Thomas, as Mrs. Patmore once put it, is not a ladies' man ). William is an accomplished pianist and spends some nights entertaining the staff on a small piano downstairs during or after dinner. William loves horses and wanted to be a groom, but became a footman to please his mother as she wanted him to one day become a butler.