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Authors: John Morris
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countryside instilled in him a love of nature and physical exercise. He would frequently stop on the way to explore a pond and “the nest of an old crow demanded a daily visit on a high and solitary tree, and, if he were lucky, rob the eggs he found there.” Once at school, he enjoyed playing Hare and Hounds, mentioning that cricket was an unknown sport in those days. “The discovery of a gin [a trap to ensnare small animals] was a source of intense enjoyment and the division of its string afforded a doubly exquisite pleasure for it ensured puss [rabbit?] a free run and baulked the skilful poacher in his nefarious designs.”
Later in his address John Williams continued, “Such a boyhood as that which I have described braces the mind and body, strengthens the weak frame and makes healthy youths. I have to confess that I look back upon that period in my life not only as one of the pleasantest and brightest but also one of the best spent, for its effects have been my mainstay for the rest of my career.”
But one statement he made, more than any other, demonstrated Dr John Williams’s state of mind, and clearly established there were no demons in his past that might have driven him through the metamorphosis from happy innocent schoolboy to violent mass murderer: “A sane mind in a healthy body is the best reinsurance for any future training.”
At the age of fifteen, John Williams left his local school and attended the Normal School in Swansea. He intended to follow his father’s footsteps and train for a career in the ministry. However, encouraged by the principal, Dr Evan Davies, he developed an interest in natural science and in 1857 he left Swansea for Glasgow University where he studied mathematics for a year. His class voted him second prize for ‘general excellence’, which award was approved by his professor. On 20 July 1859, he bound himself as apprentice under a deed of indentures for five years to Dr W.H. Michael and Dr Ebenezer Davies, surgeons and apothecaries in Swansea, “to learn the art and science of Medicine and Surgery”. But just two years later in 1861, the year that the Prince Consort, Queen Victoria’s husband Albert, died, William’s burning ambition led him to abandon his training, and he entered University College Hospital in London where he continued his medical studies.
In 1864 Williams was appointed obstetric assistant and the next year he was promoted to house surgeon. In 1865, he was awarded the prestigious Certificate of Honour for Pathological Anatomy, and a gold medal, which he later melted down to make his wife’s wedding ring. By the age of twenty-seven, he had qualified both as a doctor and surgeon and worked at the Brompton Hospital for Consumption and at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children. In neither position did he receive any pay – just free board and lodging – so he relied on his mother to support him financially. He could not remain in London on this basis indefinitely, and in 1867, the year he became licensed to practice medicine, he returned to Swansea and set up his surgery at 13 Craddock Street, near the town centre, where he practised as a G.P. for the next five years.
It was during this time that he met Richard Hughes’s daughter, Lizzie, who would become his wife. Maybe Lizzie saw in John Williams the same personality traits of rugged determination and arrogance that she so admired in her own father. Dr Williams was ten years older than Lizzie, as her father had been when he had married her mother. John Williams had risen above his humble farming origins to become a distinguished medical doctor; Lizzie’s father had been a tradesman and a maltster who had striven to become a successful businessman. The couple themselves had both lost a parent at an early age. John had lost his father at the tender age of two; Lizzie had lost her mother when she was five. Both surviving parents had strong personalities, but Lizzie’s father rarely, if ever,
Later in his address John Williams continued, “Such a boyhood as that which I have described braces the mind and body, strengthens the weak frame and makes healthy youths. I have to confess that I look back upon that period in my life not only as one of the pleasantest and brightest but also one of the best spent, for its effects have been my mainstay for the rest of my career.”
But one statement he made, more than any other, demonstrated Dr John Williams’s state of mind, and clearly established there were no demons in his past that might have driven him through the metamorphosis from happy innocent schoolboy to violent mass murderer: “A sane mind in a healthy body is the best reinsurance for any future training.”
At the age of fifteen, John Williams left his local school and attended the Normal School in Swansea. He intended to follow his father’s footsteps and train for a career in the ministry. However, encouraged by the principal, Dr Evan Davies, he developed an interest in natural science and in 1857 he left Swansea for Glasgow University where he studied mathematics for a year. His class voted him second prize for ‘general excellence’, which award was approved by his professor. On 20 July 1859, he bound himself as apprentice under a deed of indentures for five years to Dr W.H. Michael and Dr Ebenezer Davies, surgeons and apothecaries in Swansea, “to learn the art and science of Medicine and Surgery”. But just two years later in 1861, the year that the Prince Consort, Queen Victoria’s husband Albert, died, William’s burning ambition led him to abandon his training, and he entered University College Hospital in London where he continued his medical studies.
In 1864 Williams was appointed obstetric assistant and the next year he was promoted to house surgeon. In 1865, he was awarded the prestigious Certificate of Honour for Pathological Anatomy, and a gold medal, which he later melted down to make his wife’s wedding ring. By the age of twenty-seven, he had qualified both as a doctor and surgeon and worked at the Brompton Hospital for Consumption and at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children. In neither position did he receive any pay – just free board and lodging – so he relied on his mother to support him financially. He could not remain in London on this basis indefinitely, and in 1867, the year he became licensed to practice medicine, he returned to Swansea and set up his surgery at 13 Craddock Street, near the town centre, where he practised as a G.P. for the next five years.
It was during this time that he met Richard Hughes’s daughter, Lizzie, who would become his wife. Maybe Lizzie saw in John Williams the same personality traits of rugged determination and arrogance that she so admired in her own father. Dr Williams was ten years older than Lizzie, as her father had been when he had married her mother. John Williams had risen above his humble farming origins to become a distinguished medical doctor; Lizzie’s father had been a tradesman and a maltster who had striven to become a successful businessman. The couple themselves had both lost a parent at an early age. John had lost his father at the tender age of two; Lizzie had lost her mother when she was five. Both surviving parents had strong personalities, but Lizzie’s father rarely, if ever,
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