[1] He and William George Peel, Bishop of Mombasa, were accused of heresy during the Kikuyu controversy.

Born on 8 November 1872, the second son of Sir William Willis, Accountant-General of the Navy, and great-grandson of Joseph Tucker, Surveyor of the Navy[2][3] Willis was educated at Haileybury and Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he took a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in 1894, Cambridge Master of Arts (MA Cantab) in 1899, and Doctor of Divinity (DD) in 1912.

[4][5] He was ordained in 1895[6] and began his career with a curacy in Great Yarmouth.

[7] Then he began a long period of service as a CMS missionary in Africa eventually becoming Archdeacon of Kavirondo before his appointment to the episcopate in 1912.

[8][9] In 1934 he returned to England to be Assistant Bishop of Leicester.