Mr William Thomas Dellow was born in Bethnal Green, London, England on 19 June 1894. He was the son of Albert Dellow, a drayman and former solider originally from Hertfordshire, and the former Clara Louisa Bull, a native of Northamptonshire. He had an elder brother and a younger sister.

Dellow’s father died when he was a young boy, leaving his family impoverished; he went to sea at a young age and in April 1912 served as a seaman aboard the Carpathia when that ship rescued the survivors of the Titanic disaster. 

William continued to work on ships throughout WWI but later left the sea to work as a barman. He was married in 1913 to Mona Margaret Cowan (b. April 1889), a native of the Isle of Man and whose brother Robert Cowan had also been an able seaman aboard the Carpathia in April 1912.

William and Mona made their home in Liverpool and their son Ronald was born there in 1914. In 1956, describing himself as a stand-by quartermaster on the Carpathia he offered his help to film director William MacQuitty when he was making A Night to Remember.

Widowed in 1961 he was married again in July 1962 to Dorothy M. Burns in Hailsham, Sussex,

William Dellow spent his final days in Narberth, Pembrokeshire where he died on 2 November 1963. He was buried in the Nolton Cemetery in Nolton Haven, Pembrokeshire two days later.