Born at Tonyrefail in Wales to sinker James Willis and Louisa Morse, he was educated at Bryn Mawr Board School and worked in the Monmouthshire mines from the age of ten.
On 1 October 1901 he married Alice Maud Parker in London, with whom he had three children.
The first general secretary of the Australian Coal and Shale Employees' Federation from 1916 to 1925, he was arrested in 1917 as a member of the strike committee.
In 1931 he was appointed Agent-General for New South Wales in London,[2] serving until he was recalled following the dismissal of the Lang government and subsequent defeat at the 1932 election.
[1] Willis resigned from the Legislative Council to stand as a Miners' candidate at the 1933 Bulli by-election, however he was defeated, receiving 23.5% of the primary votes,[4] and was expelled from Lang Labor for standing against an endorsed candidate.