 William was a manager for Lloyds Bank in Wind Street, Swansea, and the family lived at "Redcliffe", a large Victorian house about from Swansea, at Caswell Bay.Watkins read fluently by the age of four, and at five announced that he would be a poet, although he did not wish to be published until after his death.He wrote poetry and read widely from eight or nine years of age and was especially fond of the works of John Keats and Shelley.