Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Captain H. T. M. Williams, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, later Surrey Home Guard, a long serving Chairman of the 15th Battalion Association who was twice severely wounded in action during the Great War

1914-15 Star (Lieut. H. T. M. Williams. R.W. Fus:); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Lieut. H. T. Williams.); Defence Medal (Sgt. H. T. M. Williams. 3rd Surrey Btn. Home Guard) privately impressed naming, mounted court-style as worn, lacquered, generally very fine (4) £160-£200

M.I.D. London Gazette 22 May 1917.

Howel Trevor Meakin Williams was born on 27 July 1894, the elder son of Sir Howell Jones Williams, Justice of the Peace and High Sheriff of Merionethshire from 1917-18. Appointed to a commission as Temporary Second Lieutenant in the 15th (London Welsh) Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers on 20 November 1914, Williams served in France from 2 December 1915, and as part of the 113th Brigade, 38th (Welsh) Division during the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

The Battalion’s most significant action during this time occurred in July 1916 during the brutal assault on Mametz Wood. Characterised by heavy machine-gun fire and close quarters fighting, the Royal Welsh Fusiliers suffered heavy losses. An article published in the Holloway Press on 25 May 1917, adds:
‘Mr. Howell J. Williams, J.P., L.C.C., has been called to France to his son, Lieut. Trevor Williams, of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. We learn with much regret that the Lieutenant is in a critical condition dangerously ill from cerebro-spinal meningitis following [a] bullet wound in the head. Lieut. Trevor Williams was dangerously wounded in battle at Mametz Wood, but made a marvellous recovery, and went back to the front fighting line on the Somme.’

The German bullet effectively put an end to the recipient’s active service. Having had two close shaves, Williams transferred to No. 2 Dispersal Unit as Captain and later put all his energies into his Chairmanship of the 15th Battalion Association. At a reunion dinner held in 1952, Captain Sir John Cecil-Williams, late of the 14th Battalion and a lifelong friend of Williams, recalled the action in Mametz Wood and the withdrawal of both men to safety. He died in December 1983.

Sold with copied research including a photograph of the recipient wearing his medals at the 44th Anniversary reunion dinner.