William was born in Portsea, Hampshire, on 15 April 1897, the youngest of three children of Edward and Mary Jane (née Bishop) Dangerfield. With elder sister Beatrice (1891) and older brother Edward (1892) he lived at 61, Lincoln Road, Portsmouth. Edward, the father (ex RN 1879-1901, RFR 1914-1915, PO 1c, Svc No. 110403) moved to Bodmin around 1911 to become a warden in the RN prison and the rest of the family, mother and the two older children are all in Cornwall for the 1921 census.

William entered the Royal Navy on 14 May 1912 when he walked across the gangway of HMS IMPREGNABLE, the “Boy Training Ship” in Devonport dockyard, aged 15 years and 2 months to become a Boy Second Class. On 7 January 1913 he was advanced to Boy First Class and joined HMS BELLEROPHON the next day. He was made Ordinary Seaman on 16 October 1914 and Able Seaman on 13 January 1916. As he had volunteered for the submarine service, he received a draft to HMS DOLPHIN on 9 February 1917. After completing the 2 month basic submariners course he undertook the long journey North on 11 April 1917 with a draft to HMS K4  attached to HMS FEARLESS, the submarine depot ship for the 12th Submarine Flotilla based at the time in Rosyth, Scotland.

On the evening of 31 January 1918 HMS K4 departed Rosyth harbour with many other vessels bound for a North Sea exercise. In what became known as the “Battle of May Island” a number of submarines were lost or damaged. Several separate collisions occurred. HMS K6 collided with K4, so great being the collision that K4 was almost sliced in two and sank immediately with the loss of all onboard. In a few catastrophic hours 105 submariners died on submarines K4, K14 and K17.

Able Seaman William George Dangerfield, Svc No. J17629 “Crossed the Bar” with the other 54 shipmates from HMS K4. He is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial on Panel 27.