Richard Garnons Williams
Colonel Richard Davies Garnons Williams (15 June 1856 – 27 September 1915) was a Welsh rugby player and British Army officer. He was born in Llowes, Radnorshire, and studied at Magdalen College School, Oxford, then Trinity College, Cambridge, before training at the Royal Military College Sandhurst. A forward, he played for Cambridge University RFC, Brecon, and Newport, and earned one cap for Wales in the country’s first international match in 1881 against England.
Garnons Williams began his military career in 1876 after Sandhurst, serving in the 38th Foot and then the 7th Foot (Royal Fusiliers). He rose to captain by 1885 and served as adjutant of the 4th Battalion Militia. He retired from the regular army in 1892 but continued in volunteer units, becoming a major in 1894 and brigade major in 1895, with honorary lieutenant colonel rank granted in 1899. He resigned his Volunteer commission in 1906, keeping the right to wear the uniform.
When World War I began, he rejoined the army and was posted to the 12th (Service) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers as a major in September 1914. He was promoted to temporary lieutenant colonel and commanded the Brecknockshire Battalion of the South Wales Borderers before returning to the 12th Royal Fusiliers. He was killed in action during the Battle of Loos in late September 1915 and is remembered on the Loos Memorial. He was the oldest Wales international player to be killed in the war.
He married Alice Jessie Bircham on 8 January 1885; they had a daughter, Barbara, and a son, Roger. Barbara later married Captain Hume Buckley of the Welsh Guards; her husband was killed in action in 1917, and Barbara herself was serving in France at the time.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 17:03 (CET).