Cricket Witness No 5 - Whites on Green

55 Swansea at war played again for the county, and by 1912, he had also become the captain of Swansea’s 1 st XI. Through his friendship with Tom Whittington, the Neath-born solicitor who was Glamorgan’s captain, Williams also agreed to succeed Hugh Ingledew, the Welsh rugby international, as Glamorgan’s Treasurer as the decision-making powerhouse of Glamorgan CCC shifted west. Whilst very proud of his achievements in captaining the Swansea club and playing for Glamorgan, Williams was happiest playing in the more relaxed and convivial surroundings of Killay House, especially playing for the Public School Nondescripts. As Jack Morgan later recalled, “Dyson Williams, with his panama covering his baldness, was a familiar figure on the cricket field in those days We were engaged in amateur theatricals together and this led to many invitations to play cricket at Killay House, and there is no better way of enjoying the game. Something went out of cricket when those house parties became a diminishing feature in the sporting life of south Wales.” 2 Williams duly became a fine soldier and a popular officer, overseeing the recruitment and training at St. Helen’s by the 14 th (Swansea Battalion) of the Welch Regiment, and to Williams went much of the credit for its initial formation under Colonel Benson on 16 September, 1914, with Williams himself acting as captain and adjutant. It was no surprise either that Williams swiftly rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel in France, and was to be second-in-command of the Swansea Battalion throughout the war, apart from a six-week period in the autumn of 1918 when he commanded Dyson Bransby Williams