William Bonney, from Doncaster holds no reserves when it comes to his religion. He tells people:
"I am a Druid and proud. My Druid name is Hawkwind."
The 57 year old cancer survivor left the parachute regiment in his early 20s and went on to pursue a career as a blacksmith. In was throughout this career as a blacksmith that he became a druid.
"The beliefs of druids vary massively, but the fundamental belief is that you honour the ancestors and your honour the land."
The neo-druidic belief is one that promotes the harmony and worship of nature and respect for all beings including the environment.
It was through these jobs he began to meet people from a druidic background and he really took a shine to them.
After leaving the parachute regiment William attempted to make a knife. He then asked for some tutoring from a local blacksmith who he then went on to work for. When the blacksmith died William inherited the Blacksmith business. However, he wasn't that interested in making gates and railings or doing farm yard ironwork repairs so he began to make swords and do work for British Heritage.
There would be druid events and meetings up and down the country on a fairly regular basis. Having made a staff for a customer, William attended a summer solstice festival at Stonehenge where he met lots of other druids who advised him on events to attend if he was interested in learning more. They advised he go to one of the 'Rainbow Camps', a group of camps specially aimed at Druids.
"I went to Rainbow camp and loved it, everything was outside and I loved the 'barefoot' lifestyle, I could feel the earth under my feet. It was so peaceful and enlightened."
Druidism was given official recognition as a religion in September 2010 when the Charity Commission for England and Wales agreed to register The Druid Network as a charity.
Williams wife became very interested in the druid religion however his two children thought it was a little bit weird and weren't so interested.
This didn't stop him, he and his wife Anne soon started attending a lot of events and began to make their own little circle of friends within the druidic community. They decided that they too like all their friends would decide on their druid name, William chose 'Hawkwind' his wife ended up going with 'White Owl'
"I don't know what made me want to choose Hawkwind, I just really liked it. I like Hawks and there was a band called Hawkwind that I liked a lot so thought why not."
When he was diagnosed with cancer in 2005 he felt that he would have dies if it wasn't for the support of his fellow druids.