David Berwyn Williams was born in Dolgelly, Merionethshire, Wales, on the 21st August 1888, the younger of the two sons of William and Anne Williams (née Roberts). Both of his parents had been married and widowed and as well as his brother, he had three step-brothers and a step-sister as a result of his parents’ earlier marriages. His father was a timber merchant, and for many years the family resided at Springfield Street, Dolgelly, before moving to Crondall Street, Moss Side, Manchester, Lancashire, England.
On completing his formal education, David became an apprentice electrical engineer.
In late 1911 or early 1912, he immigrated to Australia where he found employment with the Western Australian Government Railways. He commenced work on the 9th May 1912, but was dismissed on the 2nd July 1912 as he was deemed to be ‘not a competent tradesman’!
He left Sydney, Australia, in the summer of 1913, and arrived in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, on the 23rd July 1913, on board the Makura. He settled in Edmonton, Alberta, where he was employed as an electrician for the Burnham-Firth Company.
In the spring of 1915, however, wishing to ‘do his bit’ for the war effort back in England, he obtained a job at an armaments factory there and as a consequence, at the end of April, set out from Edmonton to New York, and boarded the Lusitania there as a third class passenger on what became the vessel’s final trans-Atlantic voyage.
When the ship was sunk, six days later and only hours away from Liverpool, David Williams was lost and as his body was never found and identified after the sinking, he has no known grave. He was aged 26 years.
In the days following the sinking, David’s brother, R.R. Williams, 30. Upper Lloyd Street, Moss Side, Manchester, travelled to Queenstown for what proved to be a futile search for him.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, Cunard Records, Western Australia Railway Records 1879 – 1946, Edmonton Journal, PRO BT 100/345, NGMM DLus/4/1, UniLiv D92/2/249, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.