Not to be confused with the Australian rugby league footballer Richard Williams (rugby league)

Richard Williams (rugby league)

Richard "Richie" Williams , is an Indigenous Australian professional rugby league footballer for the Gold Coast Titans in the NRL. He previously played for the Penrith Panthers and the St. George Illawarra Dragons...

Richard Davies Garnons Williams (15 June 1856 - 25 September 1915) was a Welsh

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 international rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 and forward who played club rugby for Brecon

Brecon RFC

Brecon Rugby Football Club is a rugby union club from the town of Brecon, South Wales. The club is a member of the Welsh Rugby Union and is a feeder club for the Cardiff Blues.The club was one of the eleven founding members of the Welsh Rugby Union in 1881...

 and Newport. Williams is notable for playing in the very first Wales international rugby union match

1880-81 Home Nations rugby union matches

The 1880-81 Home Nations rugby union matches were a series of international rugby union friendlies held between the England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales national rugby union teams. This season is most notable for the introduction of Wales as an international rugby union nation, playing their first...

 in 1881.

He became an officer in the British Army

British Army

The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

 in 1876, and retired from regular service in 1892, though he continued to serve in a voluntary capacity until 1906. Despite the fact he was 58 at the outbreak of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 he rejoined the army and was killed in action in 1915.

Early life

Williams was born in 1856 in Llowes

Llowes

Llowes is a small village in Powys, Wales. The village has approximately 110 inhabitants . The nearest town is Hay-on-Wye, some 3 miles to the south-east.-St. Meilig and St. Meilig's Cross:...

, Radnorshire

Radnorshire

Radnorshire is one of thirteen historic and former administrative counties of Wales. It is represented by the Radnorshire area of Powys, which according to the 2001 census, had a population of 24,805...

, the second child to the Reverend Garnons Williams of Abercamlais and Catherine Francis, the sister of Fenton John Anthony Hort

Fenton John Anthony Hort

Fenton John Anthony Hort was an Irish theologian and editor, with Brooke Westcott of a critical edition of The New Testament in the Original Greek.-Life:...

. Williams was privately educated at Wimbledon School in Surrey before graduating to Magdalen College, Oxford

Magdalen College, Oxford

Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...

, later switching to Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...

 in 1874

Rugby career

Williams first major rugby club is recorded as being Oxford University

Oxford University RFC

The Oxford University Rugby Football Club is the rugby union club of the University of Oxford. The club contests The Varsity Match every year against Cambridge University at Twickenham.-History:...

 who he played for while studying at Magdalen College. After playing for Oxford he then represented their great rivals Cambridge

Cambridge University R.U.F.C.

The Cambridge University Rugby Union Football Club, or CURUFC, is the rugby union club of Cambridge University, and plays Oxford University in the annual Varsity Match at Twickenham stadium every December. CURUFC players wear light blue and white hooped jerseys with a red lion crest...

 after becoming a student at Trinity College, Cambridge. Although representing both university teams he did not win a Sporting Blue with either team. Deciding to follow a military career Williams was accepted into the Royal Military College Sandhurst

Royal Military Academy Sandhurst

The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst , commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is a British Army officer initial training centre located in Sandhurst, Berkshire, England...

, and is also recorded as representing the Sandhurst rugby team. He completed his officer training in 1876, and was commissioned as a sub-lieutenant

Sub-Lieutenant

Sub-lieutenant is a military rank. It is normally a junior officer rank.In many navies, a sub-lieutenant is a naval commissioned or subordinate officer, ranking below a lieutenant. In the Royal Navy the rank of sub-lieutenant is equivalent to the rank of lieutenant in the British Army and of...

 on 26 February. He was posted to the 38th Regiment of Foot

38th Regiment of Foot

The 38th Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army.-History:It was formed in 1705 and amalgamated into the South Staffordshire Regiment in 1881....

, and transferred to the 7th Regiment of Foot on 17 February 1877. He was promoted lieutenant

First Lieutenant

First lieutenant is a military rank and, in some forces, an appointment.The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations , but the majority of cases it is common for it to be sub-divided into a senior and junior rank...

 on 17 January 1877, and unusually had his army rank

Brevet (military)

In many of the world's military establishments, brevet referred to a warrant authorizing a commissioned officer to hold a higher rank temporarily, but usually without receiving the pay of that higher rank except when actually serving in that role. An officer so promoted may be referred to as being...

 (but not regimental seniority) backdated to his original commission as a sub lieutenant.

In 1881 Williams was selected by Richard Mullock

Richard Mullock

Richard Mullock was a Welsh sporting administrator and official, who is most notable for organising the first Welsh rugby union international game and was instrumental in the creation of the Welsh Football Union, which became the Welsh Rugby Union in 1934...

 to represent the first Wales

Wales national rugby union team

The Wales national rugby union team represent Wales in international rugby union tournaments. They compete annually in the Six Nations Championship with England, France, Ireland, Italy and Scotland. Wales have won the Six Nations and its predecessors 24 times outright, second only to England with...

 team in their inaugural match. The team itself was made up from players based more on their geographic spread of clubs they represented, and university pedigree than rugby ability. Despite the poor selection process, few were expecting such a disparity in the scoreline, as England humiliated Wales in a one sided game with England running in 13 tries

Try

A try is the major way of scoring points in rugby league and rugby union football. A try is scored by grounding the ball in the opposition's in-goal area...

. This game was Williams' only appearance for Wales, with the selectors bringing in eleven new caps for the second game.

Later life

By February 1885 he had been promoted to captain

Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)

Captain is a junior officer rank of the British Army and Royal Marines. It ranks above Lieutenant and below Major and has a NATO ranking code of OF-2. The rank is equivalent to a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and to a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force...

, and his unit had been renamed the Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment). On 10 January 1887 he was appointed as adjutant

Adjutant

Adjutant is a military rank or appointment. In some armies, including most English-speaking ones, it is an officer who assists a more senior officer, while in other armies, especially Francophone ones, it is an NCO , normally corresponding roughly to a Staff Sergeant or Warrant Officer.An Adjutant...

 of the 4th Battalion of the regiment, the Militia unit associated with the regiment. A regular officer was normally given this post in Militia units to organise training and generally maintain standards. His posting lasted the usual 5 years. He then retired from the regular army on 4 May 1892. On 8 August 1894 he was commissioned as a major in the 1st (Brecknockshire) Volunteer Battalion, South Wales Borderers, a Volunteer Force

Volunteer Force (Great Britain)

The Volunteer Force was a citizen army of part-time rifle, artillery and engineer corps, created as a popular movement in 1859. Originally highly autonomous, the units of volunteers became increasingly integrated with the British Army after the Childers Reforms in 1881, before forming part of the...

 unit of the South Wales Borderers regiment, and on 1 November 1895 was appointed Brigade Major

Brigade Major

In the British Army, a Brigade Major was the Chief of Staff of a brigade. He held the rank of Major and was head of the brigade's "G - Operations and Intelligence" section directly and oversaw the two other branches, "A - Administration" and "Q - Quartermaster"...

 for the South Wales Brigade of the Volunteer Force. On 12 July 1899 he was granted honorary rank as lieutenant colonel. He resigned his Volunteer commission on 26 May 1906, retaining his rank and with permission to continue wearing his uniform.

He rejoined the British Army shortly after the outbreak of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, and was posted to his original regiment, joining the 12th (Service) Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers as a major on 26 September 1914. He was promoted temporary lieutenant colonel on 3 October 1914, and transferred back to the South Wales Borderers to command the Brecknockshire Battalion. He seems to have soon been posted back to 12th Royal Fusiliers, and was killed on 25 September 1915 while leading his battalion at the Battle of Loos

Battle of Loos

The Battle of Loos was one of the major British offensives mounted on the Western Front in 1915 during World War I. It marked the first time the British used poison gas during the war, and is also famous for the fact that it witnessed the first large-scale use of 'new' or Kitchener's Army...

. He is commemorated on the Loos Memorial to the Missing. At 59 years of age, he was the eldest of the 13 Wales international players to be killed during the war.