Bernard Hallet Williams was the son of the late Thomas Hallet Williams, a pastor at St John’s Congregational Church in the 1880s, and a grandson of W. Catherall, J.P. Bernard was not originally named on the Hawkesbury Memorial but was added in 2020.
Thomas Hallet Williams was born in Monmouthshire. In 1889 he married Bertha Catherall of Buckley, daughter of William and Mary Catherall of Prenbrigog Farm. After his tenure as pastor at St John’s Congregational Church he moved to Accrington, then Sale where Bernard was born, and then to Rock Ferry where he died in 1904. In 1911 Bertha was living in Prestatyn. Bernard’s Commonwealth War Certificate states that she was living in the Isle of Wight. She died in Prestatyn 1952, age 87. Her daughter, Bernard’s sister, Gladys Hallet Meek died in 1956.
Bernard Hallet was born in Sale, Cheshire in 1897. He was educated at The Congregational School, Caterham, which had been founded to provide a boarding education for the sons of Congregational Ministers. At some point he was a student at the Birkenhead Institute. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lt. in the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment on 17th July 1916 and named as cadet Bernard Hallet Williams of the Inns of Court O.T.C. He died just over one year later on the first day of the Third Battle of Ypres, 31st July 1917. The CWGC records 6199 allied servicemen died in Belgium that day, and 144 men from the Loyal North Lancashire are recorded on the Menin Gate.
Bernard Hallet’s death was reported in the County Herald, 24th August, 1917
Minister’s son killed in action. News has reached Buckley that Lieutenant Bernard Hallet Williams had been killed in action. The deceased officer was the son of the late Rev. T. Hallet Williams, formerly pastor the Buckley Congregational Church. He was closely connected with Buckley, being the grandson of the late Mr. W. Catherall, J.P. who was a member of the well-known Buckley family, founders of the noted fire-clay industry of the district, and pioneers of non conformity.
Bernard is also memorialised in Ashton Gardens, St Anne’s on Sea (with transposed initials, ie HB Williams). and at the Menin Gate, panel 41.More information was collected for the page Lives of the First World War
Bernard’s death was reported in the St Anne’s Express of 17th August 1917: “2nd Lieut. Bernard Hallet Williams, only son of the late Rev Hallet Williams and of Mrs Williams of 89, St Andrews Rd, South, has been killed in action in France. Lieut. Williams was educated at Caterham College, Surrey, and joined the Inns of Court OTC in September 1915, being gazetted in July 1916. He was attached to the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, and left for France in October last. He was the Battalion Intelligence Officer and was observing the advance on the first day of the offensive on July 31st, when he was shot by a sniper. Death was instantaneous. He was in his 20th year. Much sympathy will be felt with Mrs Williams, who is doing valuable work at the King’s Lancashire Military Hospital at Squire’s Gate”.
Further interesting information has been found from the Census, the Congregational Yearbook, and the magazine of Caterham School. Bernard’s father Thomas was a Calvinistic Methodist and Congregational Minister at Pontypool, Welshpool, Buckley (Flint), Accrington, Sale and Rock Ferry (Birkenhead), where he died in 1904. Bernard was born in Sale in 1897 and attended Birkenhead Institute School before moving aged 8 to Caterham Congregational School, a boarding school in Surrey. Bernard’s arrival in September 1908 and departure in July 1914 are recorded in the School Magazine, which also notes a stage performance and various cricket appearances for the school. His death was also reported in the school magazine, which mentions the fact that at school he was an excellent musician and a Prefect and that his Colonel described him as a first rate Intelligence Officer and a splendid and fearless worker.
Why his widowed mother, Bertha, was living in St Anne’s in 1917 is unclear. In 1911 the Census records her at Prestatyn with her daughter Gladys and no connection can be found with St Anne’s. Perhaps she was living at St Annes, purely because of her work at the Military Hospital at Squire’s Gate.
Bernard is also remembered on the 5th Battalion – Loyal North Lancashire Regiment (Territorials) Memorial at Queen’s Park – Bolton, on the Birkenhead Cenotaph and on a memorial at the Birkenhead Institute.
