The Marist Brother Octavius William Borrell was born in Greek Smyrna (today İzmir, Turkey) in January 1916. In 1931, at the age of 15, he joined the Marist Order, and continued his secondary schooling at the Marist Brothers training college at Herakleion. From September 1935 until 1952, Brother William taught at Collège Sainte Jeanne D'Arc, a French–English bilingual school in Shanghai, with additional teaching at Collège Saint Ignace. During this period, he continued his own education, completing his baccalauréat.