William was born in Portsea, Hampshire on 15 April 1897 the youngest of three children of Edward and Mary Jane (nee Bishop) Dangerfield. With elder sister Beatrice (1891) and older brothe Edward (1892) living 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 RN 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 2c”. On 7 January 1913 advanced to “Boy 1c” and joined HMS BELLEROPHON the next day on 8 January and made “Ord Sea” 16 October 1914, “Ab” (Able Seaman) on 13 January 1916 and as he had volunteered for the submarine service, a draft to HMS DOLPHIN on 9 February 1917. After completing the 2 month basic submariners course a long journey North on 11 April 1917 on a draft to HMS/m 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/m 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 seperate collisions occurred, K6 collided with K4, so great was 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/m K4