Born in the small town of Prestonpans just outside Edinburgh, Scotland. William Somerville Paterson was welcomed into the world on August 23 1947. 

The 1972, Bill made the hard decision to leave his parents and friends and move to Australia. The move led the family to relocate to Whyalla where Bill's brother David had already settled with his family.

Bill worked for PMG (later Telecom then Telstra) for many years until he started his own business in 1991, where he had a very successful business until he sold it in early 2011.

Aside from family and work, Bill's other passion was soccer. After playing mostly rugby while in Scotland, Bill signed on for Thunder in the Northern Areas Soccer Association (NASA) when he arrived in Whyalla. When Thunder disbanded, Bill went on to play for Whyalla City but suffered a horrific broken leg playing against Port Augusta which put him in a cast for 6 months.

This ended his soccer playing career but still wanting to be involved in the game and after some convincing from his brother David Paterson, Bill joined the Whyalla Referees Association and became a referee.

This was the start of a 37-year career as a referee in which Bill refereed more than 1500 games.

In 1985, Bill was invited to referee in the Adelaide First Division, now known as the Super League. It was a successful season for him.

Bill returned to the Whyalla league the following year. 

It was a proud moment for Bill's family when he received life membership from the Whyalla Soccer Association.

Bill refereed his last game at Croatia Park in September 2011, after been diagonised with Asbestosis. 

Later that year he received a standing ovation at the Association presentation night as he was presented with an award for services to soccer.

Sadly after a short battle with complications due to Asbestosis. Bill passed away at the Whyalla hospital on February 22, 2012 surrounded by his loving family.

Bill will be survived by his beloved wife Annie and 4 beautiful children Mark, Neville, Lindsay and Tammy and many grand children.

He will be sadly missed by many in the Whyalla community.