- See Robert Williams’s entry on the Board of Trade’s Ancestry public tree.
- This information updates the group’s previous research published on the former DTI website (now archived by the National Archives).
- Do you have any more information about Robert Williams? If so the War Memorial Research Group would love to hear from you.
Name recorded on Board of Trade Memorial: R. Williams
Born: 14 December 1889 in Carnarvon, Wales
Date of Death: 17 November 1915
Age at death: 25
Service, Regiment, Corps, etc: Rifle Brigade
Unit, Ship, etc: 13th Battalion
Enlisted: Penarth
Rank: Rifleman (Service no: S/4050)
Decorations: WW1 Campaign medals (Victory Medal, British War Medal and 1914-1915 Star)
War (and theatre): WW1 (France and Flanders)
Manner of Death: Drowned
Family Details: Son of Thomas and Kate Williams, The Ship and Castle Hotel, Carnarvon, Wales
Residence: Carnarvon
Home Department: Board of Trade – Labour Department (Wales Division)
Civilian Rank:
Cemetery or Memorial: Board of Trade War Memorial, London; Memorial to the Staff of the Ministry of Labour; Caernavon War Memorial; Hollybrook War Memorial, Southampton
Biography:
The final blog story about each of the 305 individuals named on the Board of Trade War Memorial is that of Robert Williams. His photo and story was first told by former colleagues in the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) back in 2002 over 20 years ago when a replica memorial was created by Lambeth College carpentry students and unveiled in November 2002.
Robert Williams was the son of Thomas Williams (1853-1929) and Catherine Mary Griffiths (1867-1955). His baptism record (dated 21 June 1889) survives so we know that his father was a master mariner, living at the Newborough Arms in Carnarvon, Wales.
Robert was one of 5 siblings. He had four brothers – Thomas Jones Williams (1891-1928), William Griffith Williams (1893-1958) and Richard P Williams (1903-1928). He also had a sister called Ellen Margaret Williams (1896-?).
For over 20 years, from 1901 up until 1911 and possibly longer his father was a tobacconist and innkeeper at the Ship and Castle Hotel, 9-11 Bangor Street, Llanbeblig, Carnarvon. Robert is listed in both the censuses of 1901 and 1911 living at the same address.
During WW1, we know that Robert served in the 13th Rifle Brigade, after enlisting at Penarth, Wales. He first served overseas in France on 29 July 1915.
The 13th (Service) Battalion, Rifle Brigade was raised in Winchester in October 1914 as part of Lord Horatio Kitchener’s call to arms. The battalion initially trained at Halton Park and then in the winter of 1914 were billeted at High Wycombe. In April 1915 they moved to Andover, Kent and transferred to the 111th Brigade in the 37th Division. The battalion fought at the Battle of Loos (25 September – 13 October 1915) and it is likely that Robert fought in that battle, when the battalion suffered heavy casualties.
The very moving story of Robert Williams was researched by Anne Morrison a former staff member at the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) and published as an article in DTI News in October 2002, together with a photograph of him in uniform Extract from DTI News October 2002 which we re-share a corrected version of here:
“Recuperation trip proved unlucky for Robert
Robert Williams was a rifleman with the 13th Battalion, Rifle Brigade. He died on 17th November 1915 when the hospital ship he was on – the HMS Anglia – was sunk by a German mine in the Channel.
Robert along with the other soldiers and nurses who lost their lives, was being shipped back to Britain for treatment and recuperation from the Western Front.
Robert Williams was very unlucky – he had contracted appendicitis while in France and was being sent home to recuperate after the operation.
It must have seemed to him a reprieve from the monotony, interspersed with frenetic action, which characterised life in the trenches. But it didn’t work out that way.
In reply to a Parliamentary Question in the House of Commons, Bonnar Law reported that the Anglia had carried many “cot cases”. The walking wounded were, in the main, able to scramble off the ship and were picked up by ships nearby but the severely injured would have been lodged in the body of the ship itself and were not able to escape.
The nurses who died had bravely stayed with their patients instead of leaving them and racing to safety. Ironically, the Red Cross flag could still be seen flying on her mast after the Anglia sank. A ship sent to the Anglia’s rescue was also sunk. Luckily, all the crew of this second ship, the London Collier were saved.
The sinking of the Anglia caused a great deal of speculation – the King had been a passenger on a recent sailing: were the mines set in order to catch other royal visits to the front? There was particular interest in the fate of the Anglia in North Wales – she was a Holyhead steamer which had been requistioned for cross channel crossings and in Caernarfon, Robert’s home town. The sinking of the ship was seen as a local blow.
Her sister ship, the Tara had been sunk in the Channel only a week earlier.
Robert was not the only local to lose his life in the sinking of the Anglia. Tom Parry, another Caernafon lad and a member of the ship’s crew, also lost his life. One can only imagine the hushed voices in the The Ship and Castle pub – the home of Robert’s parents in Caernafon – in those days following the Anglia’s sinking.
Robert Williams was born in Caernafon in 1889. He had worked in the Labour Office there before enlisting in Penarth. In the newspaper article describing his death he was described as “a general favourite” there. He would have worked in an office within a small local community almost certainly bilingual in Welsh and English.
His death in 1915 is recorded on the Hollybrook Memorial in Southampton and the War Memorial in Caernafon. HIs home, “The Ship and Castle” pub is still open.“
Robert is also commemorated on the Memorial to the Staff of the Ministry of Labour, now hanging in Caxton House, Tothill Street, London SW1 and on the Board of Trade War Memorial.
HMS Anglia was originally built in Dumbarton, Scotland for the London & North-Western Railway Company in 1900. The ship had been commandeered as a auxiliary hospital ship . On the 17 November 1915, the HMS Anglia sank at around 12.30pm, a mile (1.6km) east of Folkestone Harbour. At the time there were around 390 injured officers and soldiers onboard. She started sinking bow first. Despite the assistance of nearby boats such as HMS Ure, the collier Lusitania and the torpedo gunboat HMS Hazard – who helped to rescue some of the passengers, it is estimated that between 120 and 164 people drowned (including Robert). The dead included the nurses and 25 crew members (of whom 23 were from Holyhead. It was not possible to save those with serious injuries on the lower decks.
The wreck of the Anglia lies in around 30 metres on a sandy seabed. In 2008, the port side anchorof the HMS Anglia which was recovered from the seabed was presented to Holyhead Maritime Museum along with a replica chain which was welded to the anchor. This now forms part of a display and memorial to all the town’s sailors killed in WW1, WW2 and other world wars.
It wasn’t until March 2017 that the wreck site was declared an official war grave under the Protection of Military Remains Act (1986) meaning that it is illegal to remove or disturb any human remains at the wreck.
It is fitting that Robert’s story is the final individual blog posting about all 305 men to be told on this Board of Trade War Memorial website. His story being retold represents the culmination of over 7 years work researching and telling each man’s individual unique story including identifying surviving photos via the “More than Just a Name” photo project. In completing this project I honour the research of my predecessors in DTI and other fellow researchers I have met along the way.
The Trade Historians Group will continue to provide a connection between the past and the future as the Department for Business and Trade moves into the future.
Board of Trade War Memorial 