William Winsbury is a student of Gunnerkrigg Court. He used to be a bit of a bully who enjoyed taunting others in order to upset them, but appears to have since grown out of it.
History[]
William first appears as the class joker, making fun of Antimony Carver, Katerina Donlan (in a flashback where he is among several others who are mean to her) and later also Alistair Kershaw. He also tended to have regular quarrels with the Headmaster's daugther, Janet Llanwellyn. However, this was then shown to be a ruse; instead, the two were actually dating but were hiding it because Janet was scared of her father’s disproval, and also because they are romantic dorks.
William was around when the gang watched The Power Station perform its experiment, and assisted during the kids' plan during their campout at Young’s Park; during both of these he began to open up more, being less of a rude person and instead being more kind and agreeable (he acted particularly friendly to the enigmatic Annie Carver, who he previously had billed as a nerd). However, as the two lovebirds kept hiding their relationship, he still had many fake fights with Janet.
However, later on, he and Janet reveal their relationship to the other kids as they sneak out one night with a heavily fabricated story about how they came to fall in love— however, the other kids do not believe them after hearing their story, and the two resume hiding their relationship.
William was also present during the cruise on Cruisebot and helped fight off some of the fingers, also aiding Annie when her fire abilities are stopped by the robots, again showing his kinder side, although when Kat Donlan hears about this she seems to think that he is doing it because he likes her.
He gets close to asking Annie out in Chapter 57, but is interrupted by Janet. Revealing his remorse, he tells Janet he cannot go along with this ruse any longer; apparently, after Kat and many others got the idea that he likes Annie, he decided to ask her out as a further means to hide his relationship with Janet. Although Annie now knows their relationship is real, she keeps it a secret and instead tells the others that she turned him down because she was not ready for a relationship.
Origin[]
His name might be inspired by Scottish ballad from 18th century, called Willie o' Winsbury, in which a beautiful blonde lad of the same name who falls in love with, and impregnates, king's daughter Janet. This may also be the inspiration for his girlfriend Janet.