William Hugh Adamson Becke was born on 24th September 1916 in Worcestershire. He was the son of Air Commodore J.H.W Becke. 

He was educated in Scotland, then Charterhouse and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. In 1945 he married Mary Becke (nee Richmond), who was a nurse from New South Wales and was serving in Scotland. 

William commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant for the 2nd Battalion The Sherwood Foresters on 28th January 1937. On the outbreak of the Second World War he was posted as a Lieutenant to the 1st Battalion on 28th January 1940. He was then promoted to Temporary Captain on 7th March 1941. Then William was posted to the 14th Battalion where he served in the Middle East before being sent to Italy for the invasion of Europe.  

On the night of the 5th and 6th September 1944, during an attack on San Savino, Italy, Major Becke was leading his company in an advance from the cemetery to the Church under considerable enemy fire. On reaching the church he sent a section commanded by Lieutenant B.A Hardy to enter some houses behind it whilst he armed with a Thompson Sub Machine Carbine entered the church by the main door. He was wounded in the head by a grenade thrown from within the building by one of the enemy, who numbered approximately 50. He left the church to re-load and then re-entered killing at least 4 enemy and receiving further wounds in the shoulder and arm. He left the church again and went to the aid of a section under command of Lieutenant J.B Livesey who had entered the houses at the rear of the church and were being machine gunned. He silenced the machine gun and in so doing was again wounded in the leg. But for Major Becke prompt action, the section would certainly have sustained several casualties. Having silenced the machine gun, Major Becke went to a window at the back of the church where he fired his TSMG through the window to cover a further assault on the main door by Lieutenant Livesey who was killed. Major Becke then collapsed but continued to give orders for the capture and evacuation of enemy prisoners, and directed the movements of the company until Captain G.T Hart, the company second in command came up to take over. This officer was an inspiration not only to his own company but also to other troops in the vicinity. His actions were directly responsible for the capture of the church and its occupants, some 50 Germans including a Battalion Commander and his staff. During the action round the church the commanders of both leading platoons were killed, Major Becke had, therefore, to control both these platoons as well as lead his own personal assault on the church. In the course of this action, Major Becke was wounded on three different occasions and sustained a total of four wounds but he refused to be evacuated until his company had secured the church and he was able to hand over to his second in command. It is for this action, that William was presented with the Award of the Distinguished Service Order Medal. 

After retiring from the army in 1966, he moved to Australia in 1974, where he gained the post of private secretary and comptroller to the last British Governor of Victoria, major General Sir Rohan Delacombe. He later became Personnel Officer with the Gas and Fuel Corporation of Victoria: He was a senior marshal for the RSL's Anzac Day march between 1977 and 1999, was honorary treasurer of the National Trust Spire Appeal for Christ Church in South Yarra, where he was a committed member of the congregation.