Sir Harold Herbert Williams (25 July 1880 – 24 October 1964) was an English scholar, priest, lawyer, politician, bibliophile, and expert on the works of Jonathan Swift. Williams born in Tokyo, the son of Rev. James Williams, an Anglican missionary in Japan, and Mary Ann Hodson Grindrod. He returned to England to attend Liverpool College and Christ's College, Cambridge (1904). He won the undergraduate Carus Prize for Greek Testament scholarship in 1901. Ordained in 1904, he held several posts before resigning as a priest in 1909. Williams served as a captain in the

Royal Army Service Corps The Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) was a corps of the British Army responsible for land, coastal and lake transport, air despatch, barracks administration, the Army Fire Service, staffing headquarters' units, supply of food, water, fuel and dom ...

1914–19. In 1920, he was called to the Bar ( Inner Temple). He resided in

Buntingford Buntingford is a market town and civil parish in the district of East Hertfordshire and county of Hertfordshire in England. It lies next to the River Rib and is located on the historic Roman road, Ermine Street. As a result of its location, it ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

and served as a

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

and chairman of the Hertfordshire County council (1947–50). Williams wrote ''Book Clubs & Printing Societies of Great Britain & Ireland'' (1929) and served as president of the

Bibliographical Society Founded in 1892, The Bibliographical Society is the senior learned society dealing with the study of the book and its history in the United Kingdom. Largely owing to the efforts of Walter Arthur Copinger, who was supported by Richard Copley ...

1938–44. He was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

in the 1951 King's Birthday Honours List for his work in local government and bibliography. He was elected to the British Academy (1944) and the Society of Antiquaries of London (1948). He wrote a number of books on literary subjects (''Two Centuries of the English Novel'', ''Outlines of Modern English Literature, 1890-1914''), but his specialty was the work of Jonathan Swift - he wrote ''Dean Swift's Library'' (1932), edited an edition of ''The Poems of Jonathan Swift'' (1937, revised 1958), delivered the Sandars Lectures at Cambridge in 1950 on the subject of "New Light on the Publication of

Gulliver's Travels ''Gulliver's Travels'', or ''Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships'' is a 1726 prose satire by the Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan ...

" and published three volumes of Swift's ''Letters'' in his lifetime (with two more published posthumously). Williams bequeathed his library of rare books relating to Swift to Cambridge University and a version of Jervas's first portrait of Swift to the

National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: *National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra *National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London, with s ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Harold Herbert 1880 births 1964 deaths People from Tokyo Royal Army Service Corps officers Fellows of the British Academy Bibliographers Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Knights Bachelor People from Buntingford English justices of the peace People educated at Liverpool College