NOTED NEWCOMER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23970, 21 May 1941, Page 8

NOTED NEWCOMER

WIDE EXPERIENCE HIGH COMMAND IN BRITAIN SERVICE IN THE GREAT WAR Since he joined the Royal Engineers in 1900, Lieu tenant-General Sir Guy Charles Williams, K.C.8., C.8., C.M.G., D.5.0., has had a notably wide experience. One leature oi partieuku interest in his career is that, like Major-General Duigan, he was m command of a company of tunndlers for part of the Great War. General Williams was born in India in 1881, being the son of a colonel of the Royal Artillery, and was educated at Sherborne School, Dorset. A year after joining the Royal Engineers at the age of 19, he wijs sent to Bermuda for three years, when he returned to lingland.

After five more years with his regiment he was borrowed by the Colonial Office for survey work in East Africa, being still employed on this task when the Great War started. Tunnelling in France Rejoining his regiment with the rank of major, Genera] Williams served in France on the ordinary engineering duties of war. Later, when large-scale movements ceased and both sides dug themselves in, a special British corps was formed from thousands of miners and other experienced men from the north of England, South Wales, New Zealand and Australia to perform the grim task of working their way deep down and forward until they could undermine and blow up enemy positions. In command of a company of about 300, General Williams organised and carried out several daring feats which held up enemy plans for attack. At a later stage in the war General Williams commanded an infantry brigade and throughout his service in the war he was mentioned in despatches seven times. He gained the D.S.O. and was awarded the C.M.G., as well as being promoted in 1918 to the temporary rank of brigadier-general. Service in India After the war General Williams passed through the Staff College,- Camberley, and then spent three years in India. Subsequent appointments were as instructor at the Imperial Defence College; Chief Engineer, Aldershot; commandant of the Staff College, Quetta; and commander of the sth Division at Catterick. i Eleven months before the outbreak of | the present war, General Williams, who ! by then had been promoted to majorgeneral and later, in 1938, lieutenantgeneral, was appointed General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Command, one of the principal operational commands. This appointment he held until the beginning of this month, when it was announced that, in pursuance of the policy that younger general officers should hold these commands, Lieuten ant-General L. Carr had been appointed to succeed him. A few days ago Daventry broadcast that General Williams had been given a transfer, although his New Zealand appointment was not mentioned.