Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/473

 the 29th Mouravieff attacked the heights of Kars with the bulk of his army. After desperate fighting the battle of Kars was won by the Turks, the Russian loss being over six thousand men.

Cholera, famine, and cold caused great suffering in the garrison, resulting in many deaths and much desertion, in spite of the awe inspired by summary capital punishment. In his last despatch from Kars before the capitulation, Williams wrote on 19 Nov.: ‘We divide our bread with the starving townspeople. No animal food for seven weeks. I kill horses in my stable secretly and send the meat to the hospital.’ On 22 Nov. information came from the British consul at Erzeroum that there was no hope of the long-expected relief. The troops being too exhausted to make a successful retreat, it was decided to capitulate. The terms obtained were highly honourable, the garrison marching out with the honours of war on 28 Nov. The favourable terms were due as much to the firmness displayed by Williams as to the magnanimity of Mouravieff. Williams declared that if they were not granted every gun should be burst, every standard burnt, every trophy destroyed, and only a famished crowd left for Mouravieff to work his will on. Mouravieff generously replied that he had no wish to wreak unworthy vengeance on a gallant and long-suffering army which had covered itself with glory and only yielded to famine. He added, addressing Williams: ‘You have made yourself a name in history, and posterity will stand amazed at the endurance, the courage, and the discipline which this siege has called forth in the remains of an army.’

Williams was treated with every consideration during his captivity at Riazan in Russia, and in March 1856, after presentation to the czar, proceeded to England, where he met with the reception he deserved. He received the medal and clasp for Kars, and was created baronet ‘of Kars,’ while parliament voted him a pension of 1,000l. a year for life. He was made a knight commander of the order of the Bath, received the freedom of the city of London with a sword of honour, and was made an honorary D.C.L. of Oxford. The emperor of the French bestowed upon him the grand cross of the Legion of Honour, and the sultan the first class of the order of the Medjidie.

Williams was general-commandant of Woolwich garrison from 1856 to 1859, and during this period he represented the borough of Calne in the House of Commons (July 1856–April 1859). In 1859 he went to Canada for six years as commander of the forces. On 20 Oct. 1865 he was given the government of Nova Scotia; on 12 Sept. 1870 he was made governor and commander-in-chief of Gibraltar; on 20 May 1871 he received the grand cross of the order of the Bath; in 1876 he relinquished the government of Gibraltar, and on 9 May 1881 was appointed constable of the Tower of London.

Williams died, unmarried, at Garland's Hotel, Suffolk Street, Pall Mall, London, on 26 July 1883, and was buried at Brompton cemetery on the 30th of the same month. Sir Christopher Teesdale wrote of him: ‘He had marvellous self-reliance and perfect fearlessness of responsibility. He trusted his subordinates, but only consulted with them on points of detail. He would walk for hours alone [at Kars], working out plans and ideas in his mind, and, once settled, they were never departed from. Every one knew that an order once given had to be obeyed without comment. Firm as a rock on duty, he had the kindliest, gentlest heart that ever beat.’

There is a full-length portrait of Williams by G. Tewson in the Guildhall, city of London, and an engraving in the Royal Artillery Institution at Woolwich.

[War Office Records; Despatches; Royal Artillery Records; Memoirs in the Proceedings of the Royal Artillery Institution, vol. xii. 1883, by Sir C. C. Teesdale, in London Times of 28 July 1883, in the Illustrated London News of 4 Aug. 1883, and in the Annual Register, 1883; Lake's Kars and Our Captivity in Russia, 1856, with frontispiece portrait of Williams; Sandwith's Narrative of the Siege of Kars. A portrait is also given in the Illustrated London News of 30 April 1881.] 

WILLIAMS, WILLIAM HENRY (1771–1841), physician and author, son of Richard Williams, was born at Dursley in Gloucestershire in 1771. He received his medical education at the Bristol Infirmary and at St. Thomas's and Guy's hospitals. He became a surgeon to the East Norfolk militia, and as such saw much home service. In 1795, when the regiment was encamped near Deal Castle, he was appointed the senior of a number of surgeons to whom was deputed the charge of several hundred Russian sailors suffering from malignant fever and dysentery. About 1797 he designed a tourniquet of such simplicity and efficiency that it was at once adopted by the authorities and named ‘Williams's Field Tourniquet’ by the army medical board in the printed directions for its use. It was ordered by the commander-in-chief, the Duke of York, that it should be employed in every