Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

Embarkation Information

Military Awards

Death

Biographical Notes

Cecil Horatio Child Williams was the youngest son of Thomas Williams and his second wife, Fanny Ann (née Goodman) Williams, of Wanganui. Cecil was born in Timaru on 8 December 1886. At this time his father owned the Timaru Brewery, and was well-known locally. He was educated at Oamaru North, Matarawa Fordell Wanganui and Mars Hill Wanganui schools and Wanganui Boys’ Collegiate. By 1893 the family had settled in Wanganui, Mr Thomas Williams having retired from business. He passed the Boys’ School Standard IV examination in 1897, the Standard V examination in 1898, and the Standard VI examination in 1899. At the Boys’ School he was awarded an attendance prize for 1898 (absent for not more than five half days). Brothers of Cecil, including Reg who served in World War I with the Australian Forces, spent time at Timaru Main School from 1884 till 1889 when the family moved to Oamaru. At the annual swimming sports held in January 1901, C. Williams finished in second place in the Life- Saving Competition and in third in the Neatest Header. Later in the year he was elected to the swimming club committee, and in December he was selected in the polo (water) team to represent the T.Y.M. I. Club. C. Williams contributed 5 shillings to the Queen Victoria Memorial War Fund in September 1901. Participation in sports for a C. Williams continued in 1902 through to February 1906, including running events, where he enjoyed success, “evidently a speedy customer”, although he missed one week because of some hip trouble. It is not certain that this competitor was Cecil, but likely. In 1904 the C. Williams who competed in Wanganui Rowing Club events was indeed Cecil, rowing being also an interest for a couple of his brothers. He met with success in this, the Youth Crew of which he was a member being described as a “sturdy lot, who should make a name for themselves”. In early 1905 it was reported that the Wanganui Club would sustain a severe loss as Cecil Williams had been transferred to Auckland. 23rd February would mark his last occasion in the red and black colours, rowing at No. 2 in the Youths’ crew. “The club can ill-afford to lose such enthusiastic young blood, and will experience some difficulty in adequately replacing him.” [Wanganui Herald. 22 February 1905.]

Cecil’s father died in November 1901, aged 73 years, at his home in Wanganui, after a long illness. Having settled in 1862 at Picton, where he was the first mayor, he married Fanny in 1869 and six children were born at Picton before he moved into the brewery business at Timaru and later Oamaru. He was the proprietor of both the Timaru Brewery and the Oamaru Brewery. It was reported that Thomas Williams (senior) had served in the Maori Wars. Cecil was residing at Wanganui when his father died.

Cecil had a keen interest in sport. On 25 June 1906 he left Wanganui for Tonga, one of the Friendly Islands, where he intended to take up a position. At the time he was well known in a wholesale warehouse and much respected. He had previously worked for a short time in Cook and Co.’s office. In Fiji Cecil took an active part in a defence corps on its formation in Suva. At the outbreak of war in 1914 he enlisted in the Fiji Islands. When Lord Kitchener put out a call to arms to the British Empire, Fiji responded disproportionately to its size. At the beginning of the war only white Fijians of European descent were allowed to serve.

Cecil was one of 50 chosen riflemen who went at New Year 1915 directly to England. Twenty-nine year old Cecil H. Williams, of New Zealand, and his companions – Fijians, New Zealanders, Australians, Englishmen, Scots, Irishmen, Indians, and more - sailed by the “Makura” via Sydney and Vancouver for London. Once in England, after a short training at Sheerness, he and most of the Fijian men joined the King's Royal Rifle Regiment and left for the Front on 17 March. The men of the Fijian contingent were permitted to retain their Fijian flag and their identity as a separate body inside the main regiment. There was a very high casualty rate in the contingent of 56 men who went from Fiji to England to the Western Front. Cecil Horatio Childe Williams was killed in action, suffering a bullet through his brain, on 26 April 1915 at Ypres. One newspaper item reported that he was killed by gas. In mid May 1915 Mrs Thomas Williams received a cable notifying her of her youngest son’s fate. His brothers and sisters, too, received word that Cecil had been killed in the fighting round Ypres. Not even six weeks had elapsed since C. H. Williams had left England. The name of 28 year old Lance Corporal Cecil Horatio Childe Williams, of the 4th Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, is inscribed on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial.

Regret was felt throughout the Wanganui and Marton district. And the loss was felt very much by the Fiji boys and indeed all the King's Royal Rifles. Cecil's mother received a clipping from a Fijian newspaper of a letter from Sergt. Bailey describing the fighting in Flanders and the very fine performance put up by the Fijian contingent, to which Lance-Corpl. Williams was attached. “The fight was a magnificent one, and Lance-Corporal Williams died the death of a hero.” The King’s Royal Rifles suffered badly. After describing their terrible times, he continues: “Now I am going to tell you of our sad loss. We could not stand them [the Germans] popping at us all the time, so we nipped on the parapets and gave them five rounds rapid. Poor Cecil Williams (corporal) fell with a bullet through his brain. He died without a murmur. We took him out at night-time under fire to a wood close by, and buried him. We are having a cross put on his grave. We all feel the loss very much, not only the Fiji boys, but all the King’s Royal Rifles, who think there are no boys like the Fiji boys.”

Cecil’s much older half-brother, T. B. (Tom Boswall) Williams, was the mayor of Wanganui and chairman of the Wanganui Patriotic Committee. It appears that Tom was Cecil’s next-of-kin. Tom’s wife co-ordinated a project to knit mittens, scarves and socks for the men in Trentham camp. His brother Reginald Foster Williams (Reg) was at the Dardanelles with the Australian Forces when Cecil was killed in April 1915. And brothers, Walter Beauchamp Williams and Russell Stanley Williams, were listed on the Reserves Rolls, Stanley being called up. His nephew, Walter Samuel Kerr, who served in World War I, was gassed during the fighting on the Western Front in June 1917. Two cousins of Cecil – Russell Stanley Goodman and Kenneth Douglas Goodman – served with the New Zealand Forces in World War I. C. H. C. Williams was awarded the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. These medals may have been forwarded to his brother Walter. Cecil Horatio Childe Williams left a Will, undated but executed while on Active Service. As no executor was appointed, the Public Trustee was requested to administer the estate. Cecil had accrued credit of £4.12.10 at Winchester, England. Cecil is named on the Timaru War Memorial and is remembered on his parents' headstone in Wanganui. His father died in 1901 and his mother in August 1916 at Marton. The principal item of property in Fanny’s estate was the Interest in estate of C. H. C. Williams. A photograph of Lance Corporal C. H. Williams, “who went with the Fiji Contingent, and was killed on April 26 at Ypres”, was published in the Auckland Star of 24 May 1915. A nephew and a great-nephew of Cecil lost their lives in World War II. Leading Airman Ewan Seymour Ingle was killed in a flying accident in England in 1941 and Flying Officer Albert Gordon Boswall Williams was lost on air operations in the Mediterranean Sea in 1942.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [25 February 2014]; CWGC [25 February 2014]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [13 April 2015]; Wanganui Herald, 11 December 1897, 8 December 1898, 3 February 1899, 9 December 1899, 11 January 1901, 5 September 1901, 8 & 19 November 1901, 11 December 1901, 5 March 1902, 6, 9 & 17 January 1903, 24 August 1904, 7 November 1904, 22 February 1905, 29 December 1904, 21 January 1905, 28 December 1905, 11 January 1906, 26 June 1906, 3 August 1915, 20 June 1917, Wanganui Chronicle, 9 December 1898, 3 February 1899, 9 December 1899, 11 January 1901, 11 [x 2] & 19 November 1901, 11 December 1901, 23 January 1903, 28 December 1904, 3 January 1905, 13 [x 2], 14, 21, 22 & 24 May 1915, 16 June 1915, 2 August 1915, 9 August 1916 [x 2], Timaru Herald, 9 November 1901, 21 May 1915 [x 2], 25 May 1915, Oamaru Mail, 14 November 1901 [x 2], 22 May 1915, Press, 22 May 1915, 24 June 1915, Otago Daily Times, 27 May 1915, 11 June 1915, 11 June 1915, Auckland Star, 24 May 1915, Manawatu Times, 21 & 26 May 1915, Lyttelton Times, 25 May 1915, Feilding Star, 26 May 1915, Hastings Standard, 8 June 1915, Otago Witness, 2 June 1915, Grey River Argus, 26 June 1915 (Papers Past) [26 February 2014; 13 & 14 March 2015; 22 December 2018; 27 April 2019; 09, 10, 12 & 17 October 2020]; British & Commonwealth Military Badge Forum (britishbadgeforum.com) [25 February 2014]; School Admission Records (South Canterbury, Oamaru & Wanganui branches NZSG) [2014]; NZ Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com.au) [14 March 2015]; About the book "Quaravi Na'i Tavi: They Did Their Duty, Soldiers From Fiji In The Great War" by Christine Liava'a (www.polygraphianz.com) [13 April 2015]; Wanganui Heads Road Cemetery headstone transcription (South Canterbury Branch NZSG Cemetery Records microfiche) [14 March 2015]; Image of Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (New Zealand War Graves Project) [14 March 2015]; Probate record (Archives NZ/Family Search) [02 May 2015]; UK Army Register of Soldiers’ Effects (ancestry.com.au) [16 February 2017]; Medal card (ancestry.com.au & Discovery-UK Archives) [11 October 2020]; Passenger list (ancestry.com.au) [14 March 2015]

External Links

• Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph record

Related Documents

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Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG

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