William McCarthy was born in England in 1925. He attended Ruskin College, Oxford, as a sponsored representative of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers is a trade union in the United Kingdom. He then achieved a first class honours degree in philosophy, politics and economics at Merton College, Oxford and a Doctorate of Philosophy at Nuffield College, Oxford.
In 1965, McCarthy was appointed research director of the Royal Commission on Trade Unions and Employers鈥� Associations and worked as an industrial relations adviser and arbitrator. He wrote almost one a book year for thirty years and was created a life peer in 1976.
McCarthy delivered the Beatty Lecture on September 19, 1984, titled "The Limits of Trade Union Power".
