He was founder of the Orphan Homes of Scotland in Renfrewshire, which later evolved into the social care charity Quarriers.
Quarrier was born in Greenock on 29 September 1829, but moved to Glasgow aged three following the death of his father and spent most of his childhood in poverty.
[1] Reflecting on his charitable acts in 1872, he accredited his philanthropy largely to these experiences: At 17 he began work as a shoemaker after training as an apprentice.
Then in 1876, using charitable donations, mainly from his rich friend Arthur Francis Stoddard owner of Stoddard Carpets International[4] Quarrier began to build the Orphan Homes of Scotland on a piece of land now in Inverclyde and between the villages of Kilmacolm and Bridge of Weir, falling within the civil parish of the former.
From 1870 to 1936 the Orphan Homes of Scotland founded by William Quarrier participated in the British child relocation program sending more than 7,000 young people to Canada where they were employed, as farm labourers.