Edward Alexander Wilmot Williams

Major-General Edward Alexander Wilmot Williams, (8 June 1910 – 2 November 1994) was a British Army officer who served in the Second World War and later commanded the 2nd Division from 1960 to 1962.

Military career Alexander Williams was born on 8 June 1910 in Herringston House, Dorchester, Dorset, England, the son of Captain Berkeley Cole Wilmot Williams, a British Army officer, and the Hon. Winifred Mary Williams, the elder daughter of the second Lord Addington. He was posted to the 2nd Battalion, KRRC, then serving in Tidworth, Wiltshire, before the battalion moved in 1932 to Northern Ireland. Promoted to lieutenant on 28 August 1933, the 2nd KRRC returned to England in 1935. Williams, along with the battalion, now commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Evelyn Barker, was sent to Palestine in 1936, following the outbreak of the Arab revolt, before again returning to England in 1937, where it was converted into a motorised infantry battalion and became part of the Mobile Division (from April 1939 the 1st Armoured Division), under Major General Alan Brooke. was made adjutant to the 2nd KRRC, now commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Wilson after Barker was promoted to command a brigade. He was made a General Staff Officer Grade 2 (GSO2) at the Senior Officers' School, before being made a brigade major in late July 1942. In mid-December he was made a GSO2 with the headquarters of the First Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Kenneth Anderson. The battalion was training for eventual participation in the Italian campaign.

Williams landed in Italy with his battalion, and most of the rest of the 1st Armoured Division, in late May 1944. His last appointments were as General Officer Commanding Singapore from November 1962 and Chairman of the Vehicle Committee at the Ministry of Defence from 1964 before retiring in 1965. He died on 2 November 1994, at the age of 84.