Illtyd Williams
Illtyd Williams (1856-1929), director of Bolckow, Vaughan and Co
1859 September 15th. Born at Dowlais the son of Mr. Edward Williams and his wife Mary Elizabeth Trick
1929 Obituary [1]
ILLTYD WILLIAMS died on March 5, 1929, in Bournemouth, after a long period of ill-health.
He was the son of the late Mr. Edward Williams, of Middlesbrough, who was President of the Iron and Steel Institute in the years 1879-81, and a Bessemer Gold Medallist.
Mr. Illtyd Williams' connection with the Iron and Steel Institute had extended over a great many years; he was elected a member in 1880, and became a Member of Council in 1902 and a Vice-President in 1913.
In 1916 he acceded to the Council's proposal that he should accept the office of Hon. Treasurer in succession to Lord Invernairn (then Sir William Beardmore). His keen business ability pre-eminently fitted him to fill the position brilliantly, and the successful emergence of the Institute from the troubled period during and after the Great War must be credited very largely to his prudence and wisdom.
On his relinquishment of the Hon. Treasurership in 1926, the Council expressed their recognition of his long and valuable services by electing him an Hon. Vice-President of the Institute. Mr. Williams, in recognition of the honour conferred on him by the Council in electing him Hon. Treasurer, and in commemoration of his father, presented to the Iron and Steel Institute an amount of £3000 3.5 per cent. Conversion Loan Stock for the endowment of a money award, to be known as the "Williams Prize," for presentation, under certain stipulated conditions, to the author of the best practical paper presented to the Institute in any year.
Like his father before him, Mr. Williams was always deeply interested in the welfare of the Iron and Steel Institute, and anxious that it should carry out the purpose for which it was established; it was because he felt so keenly that it should be an active and useful means of assistance to those engaged in the iron and steel industry that he insisted on the "practical" aspect of papers to be considered for the award of the Williams Prize, and debarred all "theoretical" papers from competition.
Mr. Williams was for many years a director of the firm of Bolckow, Vaughan & Co., Ltd., and was also largely interested in the firm of Linthorpe-Dinsdale, Ltd., Middleton, of which he was one of the directors. He only retired from active business when ill-health compelled him to seek a retreat in Bournemouth.