Bill was the eldest of the three sons of the Reverend Dr. Charles John Shebbeare.D.D and his wife, Evelyne Joyce.
His father, who had been at Christ Church, was the Rector of Swerford, Oxfordshire. He held the Living of Stanhope in County Durham from 1922 until 1942 and was a Chaplain to King George V and Master of the Wear Valley Beagles, as well as the author of several books.
Bill was educated at Winchester and Matriculated in 1933. He was President of the Oxford Union in Trinity Term 1936 and Chairman of the University Labour Club. He edited "Isis" and rowed in the college's First Eight. He graduated with a 2nd in PPE in 1936.
On going down, he joined the Daily Herald and in 1937, he was elected a Labour Councillor in Holborn, a position he held until he resigned on being called up in 1939. He had, already, published "Fifty Mutinies, Rebellions and Revolutions" in 1938. Other published works are "The Yukon Trail", "Among the Cannibals of Queensland" and in 1944, "Tales of the Turf" under the pseudonym of Captain X.
He married Florence V Norma Morrison in 1940. [The actress Norma Shebbeare.]
He was gazetted to the Yorkshire Hussars from 110th OCTU on July 27th 1940.and transferred to the 23rd Hussars on February 3rd 1941.
He went missing whilst leading his squadron in the battle for Caen on July 18th 1944. His parents were living in Oxford at Holywell Lodge, St Cross Road and his wife was living at 12, Great Ormond Street, London. The Times carried a notice on July 18th 1945, in confirmation. His parents had moved to Westbury Farm, Purley-on-Thames.
He is commemorated on the Bayeux Memorial Panel 8, Column 1.
"We must be free or die; who speak the tongue that Shakespeare spake: the faith and morals hold which Milton held".