William WILLIAMS

WILLIAMS, WILLIAM (b. Burra, SA, 19 Dec 1848; d. 6 July 1913). Wesleyan Methodist minister.

Son of a Cornish miner William Williams helped his family by working in the mines. He entered the Wesleyan ministry in Victoria in 1869 and was appointed to Daylesford, Vic. On 2 April 1873 he married Annie Elizabeth Cole and following her death in 1878, married Edith Shelton Wimble on 14 July 1880. His second wife survived him and in 1920 married the Rev Dr W H Fitchett (q.v.).

For forty-four years Williams' ministry covered the principal city and provincial circuits in Vic. A many-sided man, his outstanding characteristic was his strength—spiritual, intellectual and physical. His preaching was logical, direct and courageous. As a scientist and student he brought his people help and enlightenment. He was an effective administrator who managed his circuits with insight, tact and efficiency.

He was elected president of the Vic and Tas Wesleyan Conference in 1897. As secretary of the last Wesleyan General Conference in 1901 and the first General Conference of the Methodist Church of Australasia in 1904 and the second president in 1907 he was one of the framers of the Union of Methodist Churches in Australasia. He brought to these offices a high standard of dignity and judicial leadership which was reinforced by his intimate knowledge of Methodist law. In 1900-1 he rendered valuable service to his church as director of the Twentieth Century Fund, which raised £20 412 for church purposes. He had a keen interest in science and on the nomination of Baron von Mueller was elected a Fellow of the Linnaeus Society. Queens' University, Toronto, awarded him a DD (hon causa).

From a personal experience of conversion he was always interested in movements for the promotion of holiness and deepening the spiritual life. He advocated sane, scriptural living, free from fanaticism and censoriousness. His death after a brief term as a supernumerary was a great loss to the emerging united Methodism of Australia.

Victoria and Tasmania Conference Minutes, 1914; The Spectator, 18 July 1913

T M O'CONNOR