William Richard Williams was the Principal of the United Theological College Aberystwyth, the first Secretary of the Council of Churches of Wales, and later its President.
Background
Born at Pwllheli in Gwynedd to Richard and Catherine Williams, Williams moved to Aberystwyth with his mother on the death of his father in 1912 after winning a scholarship to University College, Aberystwyth where he graduated in Greek and Philosophy.
Education
He served in the British Army during World War I, after which he studied at Lincoln College, Oxford, graduating with a first class Bachelor degree in Theology.
Career
Creator of the Pelican imprint, he was devoted to lifelong learning and cultural democracy. In 1934 he set up the Arts for the People scheme, taking fine art to gallery-less towns. During the Second World War he insisted - despite controversy - on the right to education for servicemen and women, and ran the Army Bureau of Current Affairs.
In 1940 Williams was instrumental in establishing CEMA, the Committee for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts.
From 1951 to 1963 Williams was Secretary-General of its successor, the Arts Council. A regular broadcaster, he was talks critic of The Listener, radio critic of The Observer and television critic of the New Statesman.
He gained a Commander of the Order of the British Empire and knighthood. Williams had a turbulent personal life combining a happy marriage to the economist Gertrude Rosenblum and a passionate 15-year relationship with Estrid Bannister - "the Naughtiest Girl of the Century".
His secretary, Joyce Lyon, burned his memoirs before taking her own life, the night after his death.
According to the back cover of "A Book of English Essays" that he edited: "West. East. Williams, C.B.E., who has edited this selection of English Essays, has had a close connexion with many enterprises in popular education. Thus in 1934 he initiated the "Art for the People" plan which a few years later stimulated the formation of the Arts Council. During the war he created the Army Bureau of Current Affairs (A B C A) and subsequently under the auspices of the Carnegie Trust, transformed it for peace-time uses into the Bureau of Current Affairs.
He was for several years the Radio Critic of The Observer and Television critic of The New Statesman, and, before he took to criticism, was himself a successful broadcaster and televiser.
He is now Secretary-General of the Arts Council of Great Britain and a Trustee of the National Gallery.".
Membership
He was a member of the joint-committee which was appointed to prepare a new English translation of the Bible, and in 1961 he was appointed Director of a committee which was set up to prepare a new Welsh translation of the Bible.