William was born in Derry, Ireland and was the eldest son of Alexander Binnie, the famous civil engineer.
He received a degree in the natural sciences tripos from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1888 before spending a year studying Chemistry and Civil Engineering at the University of Karlsruhe in Germany.
In 1896 he worked with Sir Benjamin Baker on a section of the underground Central London Railway between Shepherd's Bush and Marble Arch as a designer and resident engineer.
[1] Having finished his training in 1902, Binnie joined his father's engineering practice working primarily in water supply and hydro-electric power.
He signed on as an assistant to a Chinese cook aboard a collier bound for Gibraltar whose Turkish crew had mutinied and left the ship shorthanded.
[1] His eldest son, Geoffrey Morse Binnie[4] was born on 13 November 1901 and would become a partner in his father's engineering practice.