Captain James Ezekiel Williams was the second of the five children of James Williams (b. circa 1840) and Clara Ann Williams, née Bell (b. circa 1840). His birth was registered in the 3rd quarter of 1868 in the Birmingham registration district. He was baptised on 30 August 1868 in St Thomas's Church, 214 Granville Street, Birmingham, where the baptismal registers show the family to have been living in Suffolk Street, Birmingham and that his father was an armourer sergeant.
In the 1871 census he was shown as a visitor at 11 Suffolk Street, Birmingham, the home of his maternal grandfather, Ezekiel Bell (1801-1871), a master house painter. Also on the census return were his maternal grandmother, Lucy Bell née Smith (1805-1896), his maternal uncle, John Thomas Bell and his maternal aunt Maria Millicent Bell, together with his visiting parents, and his two siblings, Lucy Williams and Clara Ann Williams. His two younger brothers were William Thomas Williams, born in 1872 in Shorncliffe Camp, Kent, and Frederick Charles Williams who was born in 1880 in Windsor, Berkshire.
He was shown as a scholar in the 1881 census living at Wellington Barracks, Birdcage Walk, Westminster, with his parents and his four siblings. His father's occupation was given as an armourer serjeant, a non-commissioned officer in the 3rd Battalion, Grenadier Guards.
On 25 January 1890 he married Lucy Ann Smith at St John's Church, Waterloo Road, Lambeth. The marriage register shows that he was a serjeant in the Grenadier Guards living at 1 Frances Street. (Frances Street was subsequently renamed and is now Buckley Street). They were to have seven children.
The 1891 census lists him a soldier living at Kensington Barracks, Church Street, Kensington with his wife and their daughter Eva Primrose Williams (1896-1994).
At the time of the 1911 census he was living in 8 rooms at The Thames Rowing Club, Putney Embankment, London, SW15, where he and his wife were employed as a steward and a stewardess, with all of their four surviving children, Edith Ellen Williams (b.1891), Eva Primrose Williams, Iris Buena Williams (1902-1985) and Florence Emma Williams (b.1905), together with a female domestic servant.
He died, aged 50 years, on 27 September 1918, his death being registered in the 3rd quarter of 1918 in the Lewisham registration district and he was buried on 1 October 1918 in Plot D, Grave 3178, in Ladywell Cemetery, 113 Brockley Grove, London, SE4 1DZ.
According to both the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website and the London Borough of Lewisham Wiki he had been a Captain in the 23rd (Service) Battalion, The Manchester Regiment. However, when administration (with a will) of his estate was granted on 24 October 1918 to his widow, probate records show that his address had been 16 Rosenthal Road, Catford, Kent and that when he made his will he had been a Captain in the 17th (County of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (Poplar & Stepney Rifles). His effects totalled £242-17s-0d.
Confusingly, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission' website lists his commemoration at Ladywell Cemetery as 'Late Colour Serjeant, 1st Battalion, Grenadier Guards'.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
