George Sampson Valentine Wills was born on 14 February 1849 in the village of Roade in Northamptonshire, England. He was the son of stonemason Jabez Wills and the grandson of George Wills, a stonemason from Buckinghamshire. His mother Catherine Hickson was the daughter of a local labourer, William Hickson. Later, Wills was educated in Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire and, after leaving school, in 1866, Wills was apprenticed to a local chemist and druggist.
