SIR GUY WILLIAMS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 110, 26 May 1941, Page 5

SIR GUY WILLIAMS

MAJOR-GENERAL SIR JOHN DUIGAN'S SUCCESSOR

DISTINGUISHED ARMY CAREER

The senior English officer who is to advise the New Zealand Government on defence questions following the retirement of the Chief of the General Staff, Major-General Sir John Duigan, has held many important posts. His. appointment as successor to Sir John Duigan was announced in Wellington last week by the Minister of Defence, Hon. F. Jones. He is Lieut.-Gencral Sir Guy WiU liams, C.B, C.M.G., D.S. 0., former commandant of the StalF College, Quetta, and late general officer commanding the Eastern Command in Great Britain. He was born in Bangalore, Ind'a, in 1881, being a son of the late Col. R, F. Williams, R.A. He married Miss Ruth Eleanor Coode, elder daughter of the late Rev. Athelstan Goode, and has two sons,. He was educated at Sherborne School, England, entered the army in 1900, and was promoted to captain in 1910, attached to the Royal Engineers. Serving through the Great'. War he was promoted to lieutenant-col-onel (temp.) in 1915. He was men* tioned in dispatches seven times, was a major when awarded the D.5.0., and a lieutenant-colonel when he was made C.M.G. in 1919. Before the last war lie was stationed in Bermuda and East Africa, where he carried out surveys from 1909 to 1914. He attended the Staff College, Camberley, in 1919', and was appointed G.S.O 1 ., United Provinces District, India, in 1920. From there he went tc the Staff College, Quetta, as G.S.O 1 . 1, from 1922 to 1923, Avhen he Avas made Deputy Military Secretary to the War Oiffice until 1,927., He commanded the Eighth Bareilly Infantry until 1928, when he became Army Instructor at the Imperial Defence College four years. He was Chief Engineer, Aldershot Command, in 1932-34, and commandant, Staff College, Quetta, from 1934 to 1937.

When Lieutenant-General Sir Guv Williams was appointed to the Eastern Command, he was commander of the Fifth Division, Cattenik, a position he has held since 1937.