Captain John Lewis Williams, 16th Battalion Welsh Regiment, had been injured while leading his men in an attack on Mametz Wood on 7 July in the early days of the Battle of the Somme. He died five days later and was buried at Corbie Communal Cemetery. He left a wife, Mabel.
As a try scoring wing, he had no peer. He scored 17 tries in 17 appearances for Wales, scored 12 tries in 20 games for the 1908 British & Irish Lions and touched down a record 150 times in 199 matches. He also scored 19 tries in 50 appearances for Newport before joining Cardiff.
His Welsh international career saw him win three Grand Slams and Triple Crowns (1908, 1909, 1911), lose only twice in 17 Tests and triumph in 14 of his 15 appearances against Five Nations opponents. He also played in two Tests for the 1908 Lions against New Zealand, picking up a draw in one of the games for an overall success rate of 81.57% in his international career.
He became the second Welsh player to score two international hat-tricks after Reggie Gibbs (v Ireland 1907, 1910) and took over from Willie Llewellyn as Wales’ leading try scorer with his 17th score in the 15-0 win over France at Parc des Princes on 28 February, 1911, on the day he captained Wales for the one and only time – he was given the job because he could speak French. He was joined on that mark by Cardiff team mate Gibbs in the Grand Slam win over Ireland at the Arms Park two weeks later.
It was a record the two men jointly held for 65 years. Ken Jones joined them on 17 tries in 1953 and in the Triple Crown win over Ireland at Lansdowne Road on 21 February, 1976, Gerald Davies scored twice to reach 17 tries for his country and Gareth Edwards crossed for the 18th time. Both Davies and Edwards ended with 20 Welsh tries, while the record is currently held by Shane Williams with 58 tries in 81 Tests.
Born in Whitchurch on 3 January, 1882, he won his Colours for football at Cowbridge Grammar School and learned his rugby at Whitchurch RFC. He joined Newport RFC from his home town team and scored a try on his first-team debut in a 29-0 win over Penarth at Rodney Parade as a 17-year-old on 30 September, 1899.
He remained at Rodney Parade until the end of the 1902/03 season, beating Cardiff three times in five appearances, and announced his arrival at the Arms Park with a hat-trick on his debut against Cardiff & District on 19 September, 1903. In the 1905/06 season he scored 35 tries and touched down for five of them in a big win over the Barbarians.
He grabbed 27 tries in the 1910/11 campaign and while he may not have bettered fellow Wales wing Tom
Pearson’s 40 tries in a season, he did eclipse his 128 in a career for the club – a record that stood until Bleddyn Williams came along in the 1940s and 1950s.
He played for Cardiff against New Zealand, South Africa and Australia, scoring a try in the wins over the Springboks and Wallabies. He was made Cardiff club captain for the 1909/10 season and ended his reign with a record of 29 wins and a draw in 36 matches.
His Welsh career began against the Springboks in a 11-0 defeat at Swansea, but he quickly gained his revenge when he scored a try for Cardiff in their 17-0 New Year’s Day victory over Paul Roos’ tourists. And what a try it was!
This is how the Evening Express’ ‘Extra Special Edition’ of Tuesday, 2 January, 1907, recounted the moment the Welsh wing wizard took on and beat the redoubtable Springbok full back Arthur Marsberg:
HOW HE RECOGNISED JOHNNY’S TRY
An incident that probably passed unnoticed on the Cardiff Arms Park yesterday (says “Old Ref”) was that in the second half, when Johnny Williams scored his great try. It was a great try, too, and one that must have impressed even those most rabid partisans who can see no good in aught that pertains to Cardiff. When Williams was left with his final pass he had Marsberg to meet, and I don’t think any back in the world would have viewed that task with any large amount of equanimity, for Marsburg, sure, is a holy terror to get by–as many have found to their cost. When Johnny Williams came up to him on Tuesday, however, it was clear that he had “Marsberg guessing.”
For once in a way this great back guessed wrong, and “Johnny Bach” was over with as fine a try as ever he scored in his life. Marsburg’s popularity is undoubted in this part of the country, but, however great it was, his action in running up to Johnny Williams and shaking hands with him enhanced that reputation. It was a gracious thing to do–an admission from a great player that he had been fairly beaten, and, had the crowd happened to notice it, they would have gone mad over it as Welsh crowds are apt to do.
He worked at the Cardiff Coal Exchange and joined the Royal Fusiliers (Public Schools Battalion) on 24 September, 1914. He trained at Ashtead, Surrey before gaining a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 16th Welsh Regiment (Cardiff City Battalion) in December that same year.
He headed ‘North’ to Colwyn Bay for training and was promoted to 1st Lieutenant in February, 1915 and Captain the following month. In April, 1915, he underwent a special course at Chelsea Barracks and moved from Colwyn Bay to the Hazely Down Camp, in Winchester, in August, 1915.
He attended the Staff College, Camberley, for another special course before heading to France on 1 December, 1915. He lost a leg in the attack on Mametz Wood on the first day of fighting – the same day that his former Wales team mate Dick Thomas was killed – and died of his wounds five days later.
One of Wales’ greatest try scorers will never be forgotten for his efforts and sacrifices both on and off the field!
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