HEROIC CHAPLAIN

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 223, 17 June 1944, Page 8

HEROIC CHAPLAIN

Death In Normandy LONDON. June 15. The first chaplain to be killed during the invasion of France was the Rev. Derrick Lovell Williams, son of the Inte Mr. Hal Williams, Hawke’s Bay, a well-known architect who lived in London for many years. During the blitz he was known as the Courageous Curate of Christ Church, Stepney, which was burnt out in a heavy raid. Mr. Williams went out nightly in the blitz in the streets, rescuing people, nutting out fires and giving comfort to the bereaved. Later ho worked in a munitions factory all week, taking charge of the Putney church at the weekends. Then he joined the Army. First be served as a private in the intelligence, and then volunteered for the commandos. He was attached to the Royal Marine commandos when he was killed. He voluntarily undertook full-scale training. and was dropped behind the enemy lines on D-Day. His widow said : “Ho wanted to see the Nazis crash, and his one great desire was to help strike the blow by taking part in the second front.” Armed With Stick. A friend said: “Just before he had the call to stand by for D Day he said to me: ‘I am going out there to do God’s work, but as they won’t give me a gun I shall take a stout stick with me to give the Huns a pasting.’ He could have been in France only a few hours when ho was killed, but it. was the kind-of death for which ho would have asked.” Mr. Williams, who was 3(1 years of age and six feet tall, married Miss Rosalind Anne Harris just before the war. He leaves two children —.Simon, aged two, and Euan, aged two months. “He was fearless.” was (he tribute paid by the vicar under whom he served at Stepney, the Rev. S. J. H. Groser. “He was the sort, of boy who was always in the middle of it and would either got the Victoria Cross or he killed. During a raid in Stepney he was one of those who were instrumental in saving the collection in the public library. The library was set on fire., but be went in and out of the blaze, fetching books. He took no notice of any danger when he went out to his rescue work.”