William (Will) Lawson (1876-1957), author, was born on 2 September 1876 at Low Fell, Gateshead, Durham, England, in 1880 the Lawsons migrated to New Zealand. 

Inspired by Henry Lawson's poetry, Lawson began to write ballads on sea and railway subjects; 'Stokin' was published in the Sydney Bulletin on 7 July 1900, signed 'Quilp N'. His first collection of verse, The Red West Road, appeared in Wellington in 1903. 

In 1912 Lawson moved to Sydney to work on the Evening News. He continued to publish in the Bulletin and the Lone Hand, and met many of their writers and artists. During World War I, medically unfit for active service, he returned to New Zealand to write for various newspapers. After the war he worked as a publicity officer and compiled tourist guides. One of his clients wasSmith's Weekly and in 1923 he joined its staff in Sydney. Over the following decade Lawson alternated between Sydney and New Zealand, working as a journalist, publicist and travel agent. 

Will Lawson's first novel, The Laughing Buccaneer (Sydney, 1935), was, he claimed, written in six weeks because he was 'broke'. Like many of his sixteen published novels, it is a historical romance. The best of these, When Cobb and Co. was King (Sydney, 1936), has plenty of excitement and romance and less of Lawson's typical clichéd plotting and writing. After becoming a freelance author, he aimed to write at least two books a year, publishing five in 1945. Lawson produced seven volumes of verse, four non-fictional works and numerous uncollected poems, short stories and articles; he also 'specialized in railroad stories'.

In 1942 his wife left him and returned to New Zealand. His good angel, as he wrote in his unpublished autobiography, was Henry Lawson's widow Bertha, who 'saved me from the grog'. Together they wrote My Henry Lawson (Sydney, 1943). Lawson lived with her at Northbridge until her death in 1957. He died a few months later, on 13 October, in the home of the Little Sisters of the Poor, Randwick, and was buried in the Catholic section of Botany cemetery.