Bill Williams (1899 – 21 November 1927) was Kiwi number 123. He played in 4 test matches for New Zealand debuting in 1919 and last playing for them in 1921. Williams played for the

Newton Rangers The City Newton Dragons are a defunct New Zealand rugby league club that was based at Victoria Park, Auckland. The club was created in 1948 by a merger of two original clubs, the City Rovers and Newton Rangers. Both the Rovers and the Rangers par ...

club in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

from 1915 to 1924.

Early life

William (Billy) Williams was born on February 7, 1898 in Karangahake, Ohinemure, Waikato. His father was also named William Williams (b.1870-1945) and his mother Emma (Ella) Josephine Houghton (1875-1934). He had an older brother, Stanley Williams (b.1896-1944), and two younger brothers, Morris Andrew Williams (b.1906-1974), and Bernard Clive Williams (b.1915-1939).

Playing career

Williams was a forward and made his debut for the Newton Rangers senior team in 1915 aged just 16. Though in his initial games he played on the wing. With so many men going away to fight in the war the senior ranks became populated by very young players and older players as teams struggled to continue to field sides. Auckland played very few representative matches during the war years and he wasn’t to debut for

until 1918. He played in a trial match on 7 September to help pick the Auckland side. He was then picked for the

team and was part of the 45–9 win over Canterbury played at the

Auckland Domain The Auckland Domain, also known as Pukekawa / Auckland Domain, is a large park in Auckland, New Zealand. It is the oldest park in the city, and at is one of the largest. Located in the central suburb of Grafton, the park land is the remains o ...

in front of 10,000 spectators. In 1919 Williams had a very busy season. He played in a New Zealand trial match on 14 May and was part of the A Team which lost 14–15. He was subsequently selected for the New Zealand team to tour

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. On 24 May he made his New Zealand debut in a match against

prior to the teams departure for

. New Zealand won the match 25–19. Williams was to play in 10 of the 11 tour matches which along with

Stan Walters Stanley Peter Walters Jr. (born May 27, 1948) is a former professional American football offensive tackle. After playing college football for Syracuse, he was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in the ninth round of the 1972 NFL Draft. He spent t ...

was the most of any of the touring 22. He played in 4 losses to New South Wales (18–23, 9–20, 31–39, and 19–22), 2 losses to Queensland (13–26, 13–16) and wins over Tamworth (21–13), Northern Division (11–8), Rockhampton (23–0), and Toowoomba (42–14). He scored twice in the thrashing of Toowoomba which was the final match of the tour. He played in the second row in all the matches aside from the wins over Tamworth and Northern Division where he played at hooker. A month later the Australian side was to tour New Zealand playing 9 matches including 4 tests. Williams was to become very familiar with the tourists after he played in all 4 tests and a match for

against them. Williams test debut came in the 21–44 defeat at the

Basin Reserve The Basin Reserve (commonly known as "The Basin") is a cricket ground in Wellington, New Zealand. It has been used for Test matches, and is the main home ground for the Wellington Firebirds first-class team. The Basin Reserve is the only cricke ...

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

in front of 8,000 spectators. A week later Williams was part of the victorious New Zealand team in the second test with New Zealand winning 26–10 at Sydenham Park,

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

in front of 7,200 fans. Williams scored the first try early in the match after taking a pass from

Karl Ifwersen Karl Donald Ifwersen (1893–1967) was a New Zealand rugby football player who represented New Zealand in both rugby league and rugby union. Early years Karl Donald Ifwersen was born on January 6 in Auckland, New Zealand. His parents were Char ...

and scoring near the corner. The third test was played in

and Williams played in front of 20,000 spectators at the

. New Zealand went down 23–34. Williams was to play his final test match for New Zealand in the 4th test once again at the Auckland Domain. New Zealand was completely outplayed by the Australians who won by 32 points to 2 in front of 15,000. Following the match Williams was selected to play for

against Australia. For this match Williams moved into the front row but again had a hard time of it with Auckland defeated 8–32 in front of a crowd of 15,000 at the Auckland Domain. In 1920 Williams did not play rugby league but returned to the field in 1921, again wearing the Newton jersey. He was selected to play for New Zealand again on their tour of Australia and he played for them against the

team at the Auckland Domain prior to leaving for Australia. New Zealand won 22–16 with Williams scoring a try just before halftime to take the lead out to 13–8. Williams played in the first 4 tour matches and the final match. New Zealand was thrashed 56 points to 9 by New South Wales with Williams playing in the second row. He was to play all of his matches in this position. He had a happier time of it in the second match against Queensland 25–12 in front of 35,000 spectators. Despite the opponents being from the north the match was played at

Sydney Cricket Ground The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is a sports stadium in Sydney, Australia. It is used for Test cricket, Test, One Day International and Twenty20 cricket, as well as, Australian rules football and occasionally for rugby league, rugby union and as ...

. Williams crossed for a try in the second half. Williams travelled north to

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

where New Zealand were defeated by Queensland 16–21 on 11 June at the Brisbane Exhibition Ground. Queensland again defeated New Zealand 8–3 a week later with Williams once again playing in the second row. He wasn’t to play again until the final tour match against Newcastle which New Zealand won 27–14 the Newcastle Showgrounds in very wet conditions. This was to be the last time Williams would pull on the New Zealand jersey. After the tour Williams returned to

where he was to play 3 matches in an

jumper. He played in a 31–8 win over Wellington in what was the first ever match for Auckland on

Carlaw Park Carlaw Park was a multi-purpose stadium in Parnell, New Zealand, Parnell, a central suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. It neighboured the Auckland Domain's Northern end. It was primarily used for rugby league and had a peak spectator capacity of aro ...

. He then played in an 18–3 defeat of Hawke’s Bay, and a 58–25 thrashing of King Country. During the 1921 season Newton Struggled for players and defaulted a match. Soon after Williams transferred to the Fire Brigade side where he played 3 matches before the season ended. The following year he appears to have transferred back to rugby union but did not play a game before then asking the Auckland Rugby league if he could be regraded from 1st grade to 2nd grade and this was granted. Later in the season he transferred back to the

and scored tries in 3 consecutive matches. He was named in the reserves several times in the 1923 season but did not take the field.

Death

Bill Williams died on 21 November 1927 aged just 28 when the 12 ft mullet yacht he was sailing capsized on its way from Milford on Auckland’s North Shore to Islington Bay on

Rangitoto Island Rangitoto Island is a volcanic island in the Hauraki Gulf near Auckland, New Zealand. The wide island is a symmetrical shield volcano cone, reaching a height of . Rangitoto is the youngest and largest of the approximately 50 volcanoes of the Au ...

. Williams who was said to be a good sailor had persuaded Stanley John Easdown to go with him to Islington Bay to go fishing and shooting. They later saw James Bowman at Milford and he asked them if he could also go. The lone survivor (Easdown) went through harrowing conditions both in the water and once ashore on Rangitoto Island in an attempt to find help. A search failed to find either William's body or that of James Bowman. Williams married Ivy Hazeldine Gildin Thomas (b.1896-1988) in 1922 they were living in

Takapuna Takapuna is a suburb located on the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand. The suburb is situated at the beginning of a south-east-facing peninsula forming the northern side of the Waitematā Harbour. While very small in terms of population, it ...

at the time with their young children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Bill New Zealand rugby league players New Zealand national rugby league team players Auckland rugby league team players Newton Rangers players 1899 births 1927 deaths Boating accident deaths Rugby league second-rows Rugby league hookers