William Austin Tomes, Jr. was born in 1894 to William Austin Tomes, Sr. and Julia Hall Tomes. He had three siblings, Valerie (b. 1890), Yvonne (b.1896), and Malcolm (b. 1913). His parents divorced in 1908, and his mother went on to marry Eben E. “Mac” MacLeod in 1912. William A. Tomes, Jr. attended Erasmus High School in Brooklyn, New York. In 1916, he joined Troop C of the First Calvary of the New York National Guard. The troop was sent to McAllen, TX to protect the border from raids by Mexican revolutionaries. In May 1917, after the declaration of the World War, Tomes’ troop was remobilized into the U.S. Army’s 27th Division through which he became a machine gunman in the 104th Machine Gun Battalion. Tomes returned from the war and married Betty Steel in 1926, with whom he had two sons, James (b.1927) and Bill (b.1929). He worked primarily in clothing and retail, taking positions at Marshall Field & Co. in Chicago, Ham & Son shoe store in Milwaukee, and French, Shriner, and Urner shoe store in Chicago. The family eventually settled in Northbrook, IL. Sadly, Betty Steele died in an automobile accident in 1957, and William Tomes remarried Helen Foote two years later. Helen and William moved to California, where William lived until his death in 1975.