Chief Petty Officer William Agus was born in St. Giles, Norwich in January 1858 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class aboard H.M.S. Fisgard in December 1873. Advanced to Boy 1st Class in December of the following year, to Ordinary Seaman in January 1876 and to Able Seaman in February 1877, he joined H.M.S. Hecla in May 1882. Subsequently present in the Egypt operations of the latter year, and afterwards in the Suakin operations of 1884 and at Tamaai, he became a Petty Officer in August 1885, having been disrated back in late 1883. Appointed Captain's Coxswain aboard his next ship, H.M.S. Defiance, Agus was confirmed in the Rate of Chief Petty Officer in late 1894. He was finally pensioned ashore in January 1901.