Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

Embarkation Information

Military Awards

Death

Biographical Notes

Frank Williams was born on 27 August 1892 at Hadfield, Derbyshire/Lancashire, England, the younger son of William Williams and Emily/Emma née Willis. He was baptised on 2 October 1892 at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel at Altrincham, Manchester. In 1901 Frank and his brother Bertram were at home in Hadfield with their widowed father; Bertram was also home in 1891. In 1895 Frank and Bertram had gone to Lowell, Mass, USA with their mother, destined to husband and father William. In 1911, when Frank would not be old enough to register on the New Zealand electoral roll, Bertram Willis Williams was a fruiterer in Dunedin. Bertram’s obituary in 1938 noted that he had come to New Zealand in about 1908, Frank, it would appear, with him. By 1914 he was at Fritz Street, Timaru. Mr F. Williams, a young man from Timaru – surely Frank – left in April 1914 with Archibald Brown MacDougall, who was going to visit his home in Lanarkshire, Scotland. They arrived at Plymouth on the day war was declared. On his return to New Zealand in December 1914, Archibald spoke with a “Herald” reporter. His impressions are related in the Timaru Herald article attached. When Archibald enlisted, he gave his address as care of B. W. Williams, Fritz Street, Timaru, B. W. being Frank’s brother.

This was the war for which Frank Williams enlisted on 15 March 1915 at Trentham. Corporal F. Williams was one of a group of men who had been despatched from Timaru to the camp at Trentham as non-commissioned officers for the 2nd South Canterbury Regiment. He had served with the 2nd South Canterbury Regiment for two years and was still serving. He had also served with the Territorials in Dunedin for a year. Frank was a grocer, single and Wesleyan. His address was Fritz Street, Timaru, the same as that of his next-of-kin – his brother, B. Williams. He stood at 5 feet 10½ inches, weighed 148 pounds, and had a chest measurement of 33½-36 inches. His complexion was fair, his eyes grey and his hair brown.

Sergeant F. Williams embarked with the Canterbury Infantry Battalion of the 6th Reinforcements, leaving Wellington for Suez, Egypt on 14 August 1915 by the “Willochra”. He had been promoted to sergeant in June 1915, but on joining his battalion at Mudros in September he reverted to ranks, before being promoted to corporal in October in place of a corporal who had been killed. A few weeks later he was appointed temporary sergeant in place of a sergeant who had been wounded. On 5 December 1915 at Anzac he was sent to hospital and, on being evacuated sick, relinquished the temporary rank of sergeant. He was subsequently admitted to the Hospital ship “Oxfordshire”, suffering from influenza. Admitted to the New Zealand General Hospital at Cairo on 15 December, he was discharged to Base Depot and attached to strength on 8 January 1916, only to be re-admitted to the Pont de Koubbeh Hospital at Cairo on 14 January, with oral sepsis and no teeth. In February he was again attached to strength at the New Zealand Base Depot. On 20 May 1916, Williams embarked at Alexandria by the “Inverina” for Marseilles, France. He joined the 2nd Battalion of the Canterbury Infantry Regiment in the Field at Rouen on 13 August 1916. Little more than five weeks later, he was reported wounded in action in France (at the Somme) and was admitted to the No. 23 General Hospital at Etaples. On re-joining his Unit, after completing a course at Plymouth, he was promoted to sergeant (5 October 1916).

Sergeant Frank Williams experienced some eight months of action before he was wounded in action for a second time, his brother, Mr B. W. Williams, of 13 Fritz Street, Timaru, receiving advice to this effect. On 7 June 1917 he was admitted to the 9th Australian Field Ambulance and then to No. 2 Australian Casualty Clearing Station. The next day he was admitted to 8 Stationary Hospital at Wimmereux. On 13 June he embarked for England on the Hospital Ship “St Patrick” and was admitted to No. 1 New Zealand General Hospital at Brockenhurst. He had suffered a slight gunshot wound to his right arm. On 3 July 1917 he was transferred to the Convalescent Hospital at Hornchurch and after discharge he took up duties at the Command Depot at Codford. There he was detailed to the Somerset Light Infantry Regiment at Plymouth where he undertook a course of Instruction. Williams was classified as unfit by the Medical Board on 10 April 1918. He was admitted to the 3rd New Zealand General Hospital at Codford (VD Section) on 25 April and discharged on 7 May. He was still in England in 1919, being promoted to Staff Sergeant on 19 February. After serving at Codford and Sling, he moved to Torquay in October.

S-Sgt. F. Williams, 6/2809, Timaru, embarked on 3 November 1919 for return to New Zealand per the “Ruahine” which arrived at Auckland on 22 December 1919. He was discharged on 24 January 1920, on the termination of his period of engagement. He had given four years and 316 days of service, the vast majority overseas in all theatres of war. He was awarded the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. His intended address was Hadfield, Clifton Terrace. In July 1917, in response to a patriotic petition, Fritz Street was renamed Clifton Terrace.

Following his return from war service, Frank Williams engaged in the drapery trade. On 24 September 1921 at St Mary’s Anglian Church, Timaru, he married Ivy May Vida Segar, also a draper’s assistant. In 1922 they moved to Fairlie and by 1931 to Gisborne, where Frank spent the rest of his life as a drapery manager. Frank Williams died on 4 February 1962 at Gisborne, aged 69 years. He was cremated at Hawke’s Bay Crematorium, Hastings, as was Ida in 1965. Their ashes were scattered to the four winds. In 1918 Frank stated that he had no desire to make a Will. He did, however, execute a Will in 1924 when he was living at Fairlie. Everything was to go to his wife and, if she predeceased him, to any children. Frank and Ivy had no children. She made bequests to two nephews of her husband – Willis William (Christchurch) and Bertram Williams (Whangarei), and her four nieces. Willis and Bertram were sons of Frank’s brother, Bertram Willis Williams. In 1949, 25-year-old Willis Williams, a teacher, travelled to England and returned in 1950, coming from an address at Hadfield, Manchester, England. In the 1960s-1970s Willis was teaching in Timaru. While he was a student at training college in Dunedin, his name was drawn in a World War Two ballot. His brother, Bertram Willis Williams was a grocer’s storeman, residing at “Hadfield”, Fritz Street, Timaru, when he was listed on the Reserve Rolls and when he was called up for military service in 1917. Bertram worked for the Canterbury Farmers’ Co-operative Association before moving in the 1920s to Oamaru, where he was active in the community and the Wesley Church. Frank was in Gisborne when Bertram died in 1938. Silas Williams who had come to New Zealand in the 1870s and was living in Fritz Street, Timaru, from the early 1900s, and was also an adherent of the Wesleyan Church, may have been a relative of Frank and Bertram.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [11 March 2014]; NZ Defence Force Personnel Records (Archives NZ Ref. AABK 18805 W5557 0122701) [26 November 2014]; 1891 & 1901 England census & other (ancestry.com.au) [12 March 2014]; NZ Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com.au); St Mary’s Timaru marriage record (South Canterbury Branch NZSG) [20 June 2014]; Probate record (Archives NZ/Family Search) [30 May 2015]; Hawke’s Bay Cremation Register (microfiche held by South Canterbury Branch NZSG) [26 November 2015]; Timaru Herald, 26 December 1914, 17 March 1915, 21 January 1916, 25 June 1917, NZ Times, 20 January 1916, 28 November 1919, Evening Post, 9 October 1916, Dominion, 28 June 1917, Sun, 4 July 1917, Otago Daily Times, 9 August 1938 (Papers Past) [03 & 04 May 2016, 27 November 2018; 26 & 28 December 2021; 01 January 2022]

External Links

• Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph record
• Military personnel file

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