Attention T.M. Hughes- author of "A Musical Family"

I am one of a small group from Magdalen College Oxford carrying out research on Members of the Foundation who were killed in the Great War. One of these was W.H.Williams, who although he did not attend the College was at the College School as a chorister and so was a member of our Foundation and appears on the College War Memorial.

I was very interested to read your article "A Musical Family" which gave us more information on Williams and his family than we had. I can however make one correction according to Army Form 103 - Casualty Form-Active service, which gives detailsl of his service from his arrival on Gallipoli to his death, he was 'killed-aeroplane accident' rather than being killed in combat. He was buried at Ramleh Military Cemetery the day after his death.

I also have information on his fiancé:
Edith Alice Ormerod ( 1894-1962) was the daughter of Thomas Pickersgill Ormerod (1858 -1911 Christchurch New Zealand, a Tanner and Leather merchant of Rochdale); in 1922 she married James Caldwell Alexander MC (1884-1969 at the time of the 1911 census a clerk; Lt in the 7 Lan Fus served in France from 1916), 2 children

I have no information on his brother, but I will look in the College archives to see if I can add anything.

We intend publishing the biographies of the Magdalen Men killed during the war on a freely accessible web site. Included with the biographies are photographs of the men. Out of well over 200 men Williams is one of the few for whom we have no photograph. There are no photographs of him in College nor in the College School. Do you by any chance have a photograph of him that we might use. We would of course acknowledge with gratitude the source.

We would be grateful for any other information you have on Williams.

Should you be interested I can send you a copy of our first draft of our Biography of W.H.Williams.

Dr. David B Roberts, Emeritus Fellow, Magdalen College, Oxford