William Henry Dale was born on 29 October 1865. His father James William was a carman, or cab proprietor, and he and his wife Emma nee Glenn lived first in Birmingham, where William was baptised on 4 March 1866, and then in Leamington. William Henry had an older sister and two younger sisters. When William married in Leamington, aged 20, on 25 April 1886, his occupation was "groom" but he soon followed in his father's footsteps and became a cab driver. His wife was Fanny Maria Loman of Bishop's Itchington; the couple went on to have eight children although one had died by the time of the 1911 census.
Sadly William's wife died aged 48 in 1912 and by the time of the 1939 census he was lodging with Mr and Mrs Rench in Church Lane Stoneleigh, his occupation given as retired cab driver. He died five years later in 1944 aged 78.