Tribute to a Welsh Rugby Legend
Whitchurch High School also honours John Lewis Williams, one of Wales' greatest-ever try-scorers...
WHEN former Wales and British and Irish Lions wing John Lewis Williams was inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame in 2015, his award remained in the organising committee’s hands. Now a final resting place has been found for his Hall of Fame commemorative cap at Whitchurch High School. The school wasn’t standing when Johnny was growing up, but he went to a junior school in the village, lived all his life in Whitchurch and is remembered on the village’s War Memorial a couple of drop kicks away from the school.
Whitchurch High School is one of Wales’ most renowned cradles of rugby which recently produced Wales and Lions captain Sam Warburton and currently has Christian Tshiunza battling for a place in this year’s World Cup. The school plays in the Welsh Schools & Colleges League and supports 2,400 pupils as Wales’ biggest school.
Johnny’s cap will now have pride of place alongside the Captain’s Board and Rugby Honours Board in the pavilion, where it is hoped it will serve as an inspiration for generations of players to come as it lines up alongside a Gareth Bale Real Madrid shirt, a Sam Warburton British and Irish Lions jersey and a Geraint Thomas yellow jersey from the Tour de France.
‘Johnny Bach’ – the try-scoring machine Welsh rugby lost one of its greatest wings on the killing fields of France in World War I when Cardiff’s Johnny Williams died of wounds at No 5 Casualty Clearing Station on July 12, 1916. He was just 34. Captain John Lewis Williams, 16th Battalion Welsh Regiment, had been injured while leading his men in an attack on Mametz Wood on July 7 in the early days of the Battle of the Somme. He died five days later and was buried at Corbie Communal Cemetery, leaving a widow, Mabel.
He was born in Whitchurch and lived there all his life. He was one of five children and his father Edward started life as a licensed victualer before becoming a rate collector. They lived at Holly Bush, Merthyr Road, at Llyncelyn and finally in Rhiwbina Road. Johnny and his siblings initially attended Eglwys Newydd School in Glan-Y-Nant Road, Whitchurch. Johnny then went off to Cowbridge Grammar School to complete his education. He is recorded on the Whitchurch War Memorial that stands outside the library some 800m up the road from Whitchurch High School.
As a try-scoring wing, he had no peer. He scored 17 tries in 17 appearances for Wales, scored 12 tries in 20 games for the 1908 British and Irish Lions and touched down a record 150 times in 199 matches for Cardiff. He also scored 19 tries in 50 appearances for Newport before joining Cardiff. His Welsh international career saw him win three Grand Slams and Triple Crowns (1908, 1909, 1911), lose only twice in 17 Tests and triumph in 14 of his 15 appearances against Five Nations opponents. He also played in two Tests for the 1908 Lions against New Zealand, picking up a draw in one of the games for an overall success rate of 81.57% in his international career.
He became the second Welsh player to score two international hat-tricks after Reggie Gibbs(Ireland 1907, 1910) and took over from Willie Llewellyn as Wales’ leading try-scorer with his 17th score in the 15-0 win over France at Parc des Princes on February 28, 1911. He captained Wales for the one and only time in that game, allegedly being given the job because he could speak French. He was joined on that record mark by Cardiff teammate Gibbs in the Grand Slam win over Ireland at the Arms Park two weeks later.
It was a record the two men jointly held for 65 years before Ken Jones joined them on 17 tries in 1953. It was only beaten when Gareth Edwards took over with his 18th try in the Triple Crown win over Ireland at Lansdowne Road on February 21, 1976. Edwards and Gerald Davies ended their careers with 20 Welsh tries, while the record is currently held by Shane Williams with 58 tries in 81 Tests.
Born in Whitchurch on January 3, 1882, Williams won his colours for football at Cowbridge Grammar School and learned his rugby at Whitchurch RFC. He joined Newport RFC from his hometown team and scored a try on his first-team debut in a 29-0 win over Penarth at Rodney Parade as a 17-year-old on September 30, 1899.
He remained at Rodney Parade until the end of the 1902-03 season, beating Cardiff three times in five appearances, and announced his arrival at the Arms Park with a hat-trick on his debut against Cardiff and District on September 19, 1903. In the 1905-06 season he scored 35 tries and touched
down for five of them in a big win over the Barbarians. He grabbed 27 tries in the 1910-11 campaign and, while he may not have bettered fellow Wales
wing Tom Pearson’s 40 tries in a season, he did eclipse his 128 in a career for the club – a record that stood until Bleddyn Williams came along in the 1940s and 1950s.
He played for Cardiff against New Zealand, South Africa and Australia, scoring a try in the wins over the Springboks and two against the Wallabies. He was made Cardiff club captain for the 1909-10 season and ended his reign with a record of 29 wins and a draw in 36 matches. His Welsh career began against the Springboks in a 11-0 defeat at Swansea, but he quickly gained his revenge when he scored a try for Cardiff in their 17-0 New Year’s Day victory over Paul Roos’ tourists. And what a try it was!
This is how the Evening Express’ “extra special edition” of Tuesday, January 2, 1907, recounted the moment the Welsh wing wizard took on and beat the redoubtable Springbok full-back Arthur Marsberg...
Marsberg, the gracious...how he recognised Johnny’s try
An incident that probably passed unnoticed on the Cardiff Arms Park yesterday (says ‘Old Ref’) was that in the second half, when Johnny Williams scored his great try. It was a great try, too, and one that must have impressed even those most rabid partisans who can see no good in aught that pertains to Cardiff. When Williams was left with his final pass he had Marsberg to meet and I don’t think any back in the world would have viewed that task with any large amount of equanimity, for Marsberg, sure, is a holy terror to get by – as many have found to their cost. When Johnny Williams came up to him on Tuesday, however, it was clear that he had‘Marsberg guessing’. For once in a way this great back guessed wrong and ‘Johnny Bach’ was over with as fine a try as ever he scored in his life. Marsberg’s popularity is undoubted in this part of the country, but, however great it was, his action in running up to Johnny Williams and shaking hands with him enhanced that reputation. It was a gracious thing to do – an admission from a great player that he had been fairly beaten and, had the crowd happened to notice it, they would have gone mad over it as Welsh crowds are apt to do.
Johnny was a partner in a coal-exporting business in Cardiff, working out of the Coal Exchange in Tiger Bay, and initially joined the Royal Fusiliers (Public Schools Battalion) on September 24, 1914. He trained at Ashtead, Surrey, before gaining a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 16th Welsh Regiment (Cardiff City Battalion) in December that same year. He headed north to Colwyn Bay for training and was promoted to 1st lieutenant in February 1915 and captain the following month. In April 1915, he underwent a special course at Chelsea Barracks and moved from Colwyn Bay to the Hazely Down Camp in Winchester in August, 1915. He attended the Staff College, Camberley, for another special course before heading to France on December 1, 1915. He lost a leg in the attack on Mametz Wood on the first day of fighting – the same day that his former Wales teammate Dick Thomas was killed – and he died of his wounds five days later. The Cardiff City Battalion lost 300men in the attack.
He scored a hat-trick of tries on his Cardiff club debut in 1903 and in 199 games for Cardiff he scored 150 tries. In his international career he scored 17 tries in 17 games for Wales. He was also a Lions test player and a member of the Cardiff side that beat the Springboks in 1907 and the Wallabies the following year. He scored tries in both those victories. In 12 games for Cardiff against the Barbarians between 1904 and 1910(when the teams met twice a season) he scored 15 tries. In 1909-10 he was club captain.
One of Wales’ greatest try-scorers will never be forgotten for his efforts and sacrifices both on and off the field.
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