Leonard E. H. Williams (Nationwide)
Encyclopedia
Leonard Edmund Henry Williams, CBE, DFC
, (6 December 1919 – 9 June 2007) was the former chief of the Nationwide
building society, also known for his career as a Spitfire pilot in the RAF.
to a labourer and a cook. He won a scholarship to Acton County Grammar, leaving at 16 to train as an accountant at Acton Borough Council. On the outbreak of World War II he joined the RAF and was trained as a mechanic. After a time servicing Westland Wapiti
biplanes in India, he was selected for pilot training. Posted to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe
), Leading Aircraftman
Williams became involved in the wider British Commonwealth Air Training Plan and joined the Initial Training Wing at Hillside, a suburb of Bulawayo
. Basic flying training took place at Induna and advanced flying training at Thornhill.
On 14 August 1943 Williams was commissioned into the RAFVR as a Pilot Officer
and sent to the Middle East where he gained experience of single-seat fighter aircraft. On 25 February 1944 he was posted to 225 Squadron
, at the time based at Lago airfield, 30 miles north of Naples
, and equipped with Supermarine Spitfire
Mk.V fighters. P/O Williams flew his first operational sortie spotting for Allied artillery firing on a bridge at Ausonia
, Lazio on 8 April 1944.
Promoted to the rank of Flying Officer
he flew with 225 Squadron all through the year 1944 from a number of airstrips in Italy
, Corsica and Southern France
.
On 23 October that year he took off from Peretola with Flying Officer
Stanley Waldman (brother of TV producer Ronnie Waldman
) as wingman, to carry out a tactical reconnaissance to the Bologna
-Ferrara
-Cento
-San Giovanni in Persiceto
area. What happened on that mission was later narrated by Williams himself:
Due to injuries sustained during his parachute jump, Flying Officer Williams was later admitted to hospital for some time. In January 1945 he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross
. The citation reads:
He stayed with the company for the remainder of his career, rising through the ranks to become chief executive in 1967 and chairman in 1982, by which time it had become the Nationwide Building Society
.
He became the best-known and most widely quoted spokesman for the building societies movement as deputy chairman, then chairman, of the Building Societies Association
from 1977 to 1981.
He had the uncomfortable task of presiding over the BSA's decision to introduce the highest ever mortgage rate – 15 per cent – but at the same time he was an advocate of dismantling the building society interest rate cartel and the recommended mortgage rate system.
In 1986 the Nationwide became the first society to take advantage of the opportunities opened up by the 1986 Building Societies Act to broaden out into banking services.
The same year the society, by then the third biggest in the league, merged with the seventh largest society, Anglia.
Williams served as chairman, then president, of the Nationwide Anglia until 1992. Among other appointments, he served as chairman of BUPA
from 1988 to 1990.
Under his leadership, Nationwide supported air tattoos and the RAF Benevolent Fund
. Moreover, Williams was a life member of the RAF Club, of which he also served as a vice-chairman.
, Tuscany in late 2002.
The aircraft was identified as an LF Mk.IX, s/n MH 768, equipped with a Merlin 66 engine and delivered on 19 September 1943 to 39 Maintenance Unit. On 24 October 1943 it was loaded onto SS Charlton Hall and shipped to Casablanca where it arrived the following 17 November. On 30 November it was assigned to 218 Group and employed on tactical reconnaissance missions in North Africa. From 28 September 1944 it was allotted to 225 Squadron operating from Peretola airfield.
On 23 October 1944 it was shot down by Flak and abandoned by the pilot. It received Category E damage
and subsequently it was stricken off register. The serial number also proved to be decisive in tracking down the pilot, who was able to return to the town exactly 59 years after the crash. To this day, the wreckage of Spitfire MH 768 is on display in the Gothic Line Museum in Montemurlo.
Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom)
The Distinguished Flying Cross is a military decoration awarded to personnel of the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force and other services, and formerly to officers of other Commonwealth countries, for "an act or acts of valour, courage or devotion to duty whilst flying in active operations against...
, (6 December 1919 – 9 June 2007) was the former chief of the Nationwide
Nationwide Building Society
Nationwide Building Society is a British building society, and is the largest in the world. It has its headquarters in Swindon, England, and maintains significant administration centres in Bournemouth and Northampton...
building society, also known for his career as a Spitfire pilot in the RAF.
Early life and RAF career
He was born in Acton, LondonActon, London
Acton is a district of west London, England, located in the London Borough of Ealing. It is situated west of Charing Cross.At the time of the 2001 census, Acton, comprising the wards of East Acton, Acton Central, South Acton and Southfield, had a population of 53,689 people...
to a labourer and a cook. He won a scholarship to Acton County Grammar, leaving at 16 to train as an accountant at Acton Borough Council. On the outbreak of World War II he joined the RAF and was trained as a mechanic. After a time servicing Westland Wapiti
Westland Wapiti
The Westland Wapiti was a British two-seat general purpose military single-engined biplane of the 1920s. It was designed and built by Westland Aircraft Works to replace the Airco DH.9A in Royal Air Force service....
biplanes in India, he was selected for pilot training. Posted to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
), Leading Aircraftman
Leading Aircraftman
Leading aircraftman Leading aircraftman (LAC) Leading aircraftman (LAC) (or leading aircraftwoman (LACW) is a rank in some air forces, between aircraftman and senior aircraftman and having a NATO rank code of OR-2. The rank badge is a horizontal two-bladed propeller....
Williams became involved in the wider British Commonwealth Air Training Plan and joined the Initial Training Wing at Hillside, a suburb of Bulawayo
Bulawayo
Bulawayo is the second largest city in Zimbabwe after the capital Harare, with an estimated population in 2010 of 2,000,000. It is located in Matabeleland, 439 km southwest of Harare, and is now treated as a separate provincial area from Matabeleland...
. Basic flying training took place at Induna and advanced flying training at Thornhill.
On 14 August 1943 Williams was commissioned into the RAFVR as a Pilot Officer
Pilot Officer
Pilot officer is the lowest commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countries. It ranks immediately below flying officer...
and sent to the Middle East where he gained experience of single-seat fighter aircraft. On 25 February 1944 he was posted to 225 Squadron
No. 225 Squadron RAF
No. 225 Squadron RAF was formed on 1 April 1918 at Alimini, Italy from part of No. 6 Wing RNAS, and was equipped with Sopwith Camels. The squadron disbanded on 18 December 1918....
, at the time based at Lago airfield, 30 miles north of Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
, and equipped with Supermarine Spitfire
Supermarine Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries throughout the Second World War. The Spitfire continued to be used as a front line fighter and in secondary roles into the 1950s...
Mk.V fighters. P/O Williams flew his first operational sortie spotting for Allied artillery firing on a bridge at Ausonia
Ausonia
-Places:Argentina* Ausonia, Argentina, a community in General San Martín Department, CórdobaItaly* Ausonia, Lazio, a comune in the Province of Frosinone-Ships:* German aircraft carrier I , a German aircraft carrier...
, Lazio on 8 April 1944.
Promoted to the rank of Flying Officer
Flying Officer
Flying officer is a junior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence...
he flew with 225 Squadron all through the year 1944 from a number of airstrips in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Corsica and Southern France
Operation Dragoon
Operation Dragoon was the Allied invasion of southern France on August 15, 1944, during World War II. The invasion was initiated via a parachute drop by the 1st Airborne Task Force, followed by an amphibious assault by elements of the U.S. Seventh Army, followed a day later by a force made up...
.
On 23 October that year he took off from Peretola with Flying Officer
Flying Officer
Flying officer is a junior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence...
Stanley Waldman (brother of TV producer Ronnie Waldman
Ronnie Waldman
Ronald Hartley Waldman was a leading British television executive.He was born in London, the eldest son of Michael Waldman, OBE, JP and he was educated at Dame Alice Owen's School, Islington and Pembroke College, Oxford.He began as an actor and producer before joining the BBC Variety department...
) as wingman, to carry out a tactical reconnaissance to the Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
-Ferrara
Ferrara
Ferrara is a city and comune in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara. It is situated 50 km north-northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km north...
-Cento
Cento
Cento is a city and comune in the province of Ferrara, part of the region Emilia-Romagna . In Italian "cento" means 100.-History:The name Cento is a reference to the centuriation of the Po Valley...
-San Giovanni in Persiceto
San Giovanni in Persiceto
San Giovanni in Persiceto is a town and comune in the province of Bologna, northern Italy.-History until 1790s:The most ancestral records claim the town was first populated by Gauls, but later occupied by the Romans. The area appears to have been depopulated after the fall of the Roman Empire...
area. What happened on that mission was later narrated by Williams himself:
"[...] We were instructed to fly from Peretola up to the river PoPo-Places:* Po , a major Italian river* Pô , the name of a département of the First French Empire in present Italy* Potha, the name of two villages in Pakistan* Po, Wiang Kaen, a village in Chiang Rai Province, Thailand...
and search for places where the German troops might be crossing the river at night by pontoon boats. I was leading the mission. We ran into a lot of Flak over the river and after noting one or two likely spots I turned towards our second objective which was ModenaModenaModena is a city and comune on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....
– my companion and I had become separated. My radio had failed and I could see nothing of the other aircraft. Fortunately he in due course returned safely to Peretola.
On the route towards Modena I decided to attack a German Army truck moving on its own towards the city. It was a bad decision because it turned out to be armed with a battery of four 20 mm cannons. They opened up and my Spitfire was hit – I do not know precisely where. However, taking the view that “discretion is the better part of valour”, I broke off and began to climb towards the Appennines, going into the cloud as I did so. Above the cloud (and above the mountains) I set a course in direction of Florence but after a while the engine began to misbehave and I decided it was best to get out. I had a bit of difficulty but after what seemed an age, I dropped clear. I did not see what happened to the aircraft. I landed very near to a farmhouse and was picked up and carried indoors by a farmer (after he had established I was “inglese”) and invited to join him in a bottle of eau de vieGrappaGrappa is an alcoholic beverage, a fragrant, grape-based pomace brandy of Italian origin that contains 35%–60% alcohol by volume...
I believe he had distilled in the morning. We were enjoying ourselves merrily when a South African Tank Corps Major arrived and in due course drove me back to my Squadron".
Due to injuries sustained during his parachute jump, Flying Officer Williams was later admitted to hospital for some time. In January 1945 he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom)
The Distinguished Flying Cross is a military decoration awarded to personnel of the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force and other services, and formerly to officers of other Commonwealth countries, for "an act or acts of valour, courage or devotion to duty whilst flying in active operations against...
. The citation reads:
“This officer has displayed commendable efficiency and gallantry in the course of numerous reconnaissance sorties […] On one occasion, his aircraft was damaged by heavy and concentrated anti-aircraft fire, but F/O Williams completed his mission before abandoning his aircraft by parachute. Many of his sorties have proved of great value to the army in the field”.
Postwar career
After the war he qualified as an accountant and joined the Gas Council as chief internal auditor, then became finance officer of what was then the Cooperative Permanent Society in 1954.He stayed with the company for the remainder of his career, rising through the ranks to become chief executive in 1967 and chairman in 1982, by which time it had become the Nationwide Building Society
Nationwide Building Society
Nationwide Building Society is a British building society, and is the largest in the world. It has its headquarters in Swindon, England, and maintains significant administration centres in Bournemouth and Northampton...
.
He became the best-known and most widely quoted spokesman for the building societies movement as deputy chairman, then chairman, of the Building Societies Association
Building Societies Association
The Building Societies Association is the trade organisation of the building societies in the United Kingdom. In 2011 the 48 building societies in the UK had total assets of over £317 billion. 15 million adults have building society saving accounts and over 2.9 million adults are currently buying...
from 1977 to 1981.
He had the uncomfortable task of presiding over the BSA's decision to introduce the highest ever mortgage rate – 15 per cent – but at the same time he was an advocate of dismantling the building society interest rate cartel and the recommended mortgage rate system.
In 1986 the Nationwide became the first society to take advantage of the opportunities opened up by the 1986 Building Societies Act to broaden out into banking services.
The same year the society, by then the third biggest in the league, merged with the seventh largest society, Anglia.
Williams served as chairman, then president, of the Nationwide Anglia until 1992. Among other appointments, he served as chairman of BUPA
Bupa
Bupa is a large British healthcare organisation, with bases on three continents and more than ten million customers in over 200 countries. It is a private healthcare company, in direct contrast to the UK's National Health Services, which are tax-funded healthcare systems and do not require private...
from 1988 to 1990.
Under his leadership, Nationwide supported air tattoos and the RAF Benevolent Fund
RAF Benevolent Fund
The Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund is the Royal Air Force's leading welfare charity, providing financial, practical and emotional support to serving and former members of the RAF - regardless of rank - as well as their partners and dependents.They help members of the RAF family deal with a wide...
. Moreover, Williams was a life member of the RAF Club, of which he also served as a vice-chairman.
Discovery and excavation of Spitfire crash site
The remains of Williams' Spitfire were recovered in GalcianaPrato
Prato is a city and comune in Tuscany, Italy, the capital of the Province of Prato. The city is situated at the foot of Monte Retaia , the last peak in the Calvana chain. The lowest altitude in the comune is 32 m, near the Cascine di Tavola, and the highest is the peak of Monte Cantagrillo...
, Tuscany in late 2002.
The aircraft was identified as an LF Mk.IX, s/n MH 768, equipped with a Merlin 66 engine and delivered on 19 September 1943 to 39 Maintenance Unit. On 24 October 1943 it was loaded onto SS Charlton Hall and shipped to Casablanca where it arrived the following 17 November. On 30 November it was assigned to 218 Group and employed on tactical reconnaissance missions in North Africa. From 28 September 1944 it was allotted to 225 Squadron operating from Peretola airfield.
On 23 October 1944 it was shot down by Flak and abandoned by the pilot. It received Category E damage
Write-off
The term write-off describes a reduction in recognized value. In accounting terminology, it refers to recognition of the reduced or zero value of an asset. In income tax statements, it refers to a reduction of taxable income as recognition of certain expenses required to produce the income...
and subsequently it was stricken off register. The serial number also proved to be decisive in tracking down the pilot, who was able to return to the town exactly 59 years after the crash. To this day, the wreckage of Spitfire MH 768 is on display in the Gothic Line Museum in Montemurlo.
External links
- Obituary. Telegraph. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
- Obituary. The Sunday Times. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
- http://www.amv-lilliput.org/modelli/aerei/ferri/williams/williams.htm A scale model of Spitfire LF Mk.IX MH 768
- http://www.gsv1999.it/ Home page of Gruppo Storico Veicoli in Montemurlo, where the wreckage of Williams' Spitfire is showcased.