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Name: WILLIAMS, John William Milner 'Jack'
Nee: fifth child of George Arthur and Isabel Williams
Birth Date: 2 Mar 1901 Harrismith, S. Africa
Death Date: 22 May 1985 Worthing
First Date: 1925
Profession: Sub-Engineer/Inspector, Posts & Telegraphs Dept., in 1939, appointed 1926. Originally Telegraph Inspector, 1925. Rehional Director, EA Posts and Tel. 1955
Area: Nairobi
Married: 1927 Ernestine Violet Milner b. 29 July 1904, d. 1972 Merton, Greater London
Children: John Arthur Richard (1928); Derek Adrian Leonard (1937 Nairobi-1988); Charles William (1945)
Book Reference: Staff 39, Red 31, Colonial, Benson, Dominion, Rift Valley
School: S. Africa; Chartered Electrical Engineer; AMIEE, AMIRSE
General Information:
Blue Book 1926 appt. 9.2.1925
Benson - Jack at the age of 16 managed to conceal his age, was taken into the Forces and sent to France. He had already shown his inventive abilities and been able to get training in technical skills which did him in good stead when he was invalided out of the Army and started to develop what became his life work in electrical engineering. He had nearly driven his mother scatty earlier by using the bath as the sea and filling it with all sorts of anti-submarine gadgets. During his army life he invented something which would enable aircraft to discover submarines under the surface of the sea. His makeshift effort was noticed and passed on to the War Office. He was taken up by air with various high-ranking officers to see how it actually worked. As a young soldier you get nothing for your effort except pride in having helped to create a weapon of supreme importance in time of need. …….
Jack went ahead with his work on the railway and his studies and he also married in 1927. For a time he lived at Jinja in Uganda. Often in his earlier work he had made a coach his temporary home when he was occupied in work on communications for the railway extensions Jack got a splinter of steel in one eye which blinded it. There was no compensation from the Electric Light Company for whom he worked.
On one occasion a hard hit from a tennis ball set up terrible pain and inflammation in the eye and it had to be removed. There was no artificial eye in the country and it would take months to get one. It may have been due to the doctor's help that an appeal was made to the Governor. General Northey had known Syd in the East African campaign before he became Governor. Anyhow that is how Jack went through life with one brown and one blue eye. Appears to have left East Africa by the beginning of World War Two and farmed in South Devon
Dominion - Public Works Department - Posts and Telegraphs Dept. - Telegraph Inspector - 1930
Rift Valley - Member of the Rift Valley Sports Club - Jan 1929 - Elected - 13 Oct 1925 - J.W. Williams
Colonial - Asst. Engnr. 1940; Dep. Reg. Dir. 1949; Reg. Dir. EA Posts & Tels. 1950
Gazette - Voters List 1936 - John William Milner Williams, Civil Servant, Box 581, Nbi and Ernestine Violet Milner Williams, c/o Box 581, Nbi
1939 England and Wales Register living in Kingsbridge, Devon, with wife, as chartered electrical engineer