[1] William Matheson was born on 25 August 1910 in Malaclete, North Uist in the Outer Hebrides, the son of Malcolm Matheson, a missionary in the United Free Church and Mary Murray from Lewis, and was brought up in Sollas there.
[2][3] His brother was Angus Matheson (1912-1962), who became the inaugural Professor of Celtic at the University of Glasgow until his early death.
[2] Matheson worked with Professor W J Watson on the Campbell of Islay manuscripts of Gaelic folktales, and started work on his "magnificent" edition of the poems of John MacCodrum.
[2] The University of Edinburgh's Professor of Celtic, Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson asked him to return to his alma mater to run the teaching of Scottish Gaelic there, and he rose in 1972 to Reader in Celtic.
[2] Matheson suffered from Parkinson's disease in his later years, and died in Edinburgh on 30 November 1995.