W.A.Harbinson was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1941. Leaving school at fourteen years of age, he became, first, an apprentice fitter in James Mackie & Sons, Belfast, then an apprentice Gas Fitter with the Mersey Gas Group, Liverpool. At nineteen, he left England to emigrate to Australia, where he joined the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) as a trainee telegraphist, then switched to the medical branch. As a medical clerk, he served in Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Thailand and Malaysia before receiving his discharge and returning to England in 1967.