Born at Newport, in the county Mayo, eight miles from Castlebar, Arthur was educated at Horton College, and at the age of twenty was sent to Goobbee, in Southern India, where he was engaged for several years in missionary work in the Mysore.
While there his progress in the Canarese language is said to have been remarkable. But being threatened with blindness, he was obliged to return to Europe, and was employed for three years in advocating with much ability the Indian missionary work of the Wesleyan Society. He acted in his ministerial capacity in Paris from 1846 to 1849.
Then for seventeen years he filled the post of secretary to the Methodist Missionary Society.
In 1867 he was elected Principal of the Methodist College Belfast, and continued to fill that office until 1871, when he resigned, but still maintained his connection with the Conference as honorary missionary secretary. In 1866-1867 he was President of the Wesleyan Conference.
Arthur was best known as the author of numerous pamphlets and books including:
A Mission to the Mysore, with Scenes and Facts Illustrative of India, its People, and its Religion (1847)
The Successful Merchant— Sketches of the Life of Mr Samuel Budgett (1852)
In the United States, editions included: Swormstedt & Poe, Cincinnati (1856), Carlton & Phillips, New York (1853) and Doctorate. Appleton, New York (1857). lieutenant was also translated into Welsh
Italy in Transition: Public Scenes and Private Opinions in the Spring of 1860, illustrated by Official Documents from the Papal Archives of the Revolted Legations (1860)
His lecture on Systematic Beneficence gave the first impetus to that movement.
And his own practice was referred to as a living example of lieutenant
Arthur suffered various infirmities throughout his life, but lived to the age of 83, dying in Cannes, France. The William Arthur Memorial Church standing on NH206 Bangalore-Honavar Road, Gubbi, Karnataka was erected in 1904 in the memory of Review William Arthur by the Wesleyan Mission.
