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¡Capt. OSMOND WILLIAMS, 0.5.0.

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Capt. OSMOND WILLIAMS, 0.5.0. HOW A GALLANT OFFICER FELL. Sir Osmond Williams, Lord Lieutenant of Meri- onethshire, whose eldest son, Captain Osmond Williams, D.S.O., of the Welsh Guards, died from wounds received in action in France, had received, in addition to numerous messages of condolence from friends and public bodies in Wales, letters from several brot,tier o/fk-ers teejvfying to his son'6 gallantry on the held, and to his personal popu- larity among all who knew him. One who saw. the advance of the regiment to which lie belonged in taking Hill thus de- scribe3 it:—'T was placed ban-way up the hill and on the flank, and took up «, position at die end of a disused trench, which ran across the tongue of land. The first battalion that came up dropped into this trench and remained there. His battalion then came along. Captain Osmond Williams, D.S.O., commanding the Company, went straight through the other battalion Shouting 'Walet; for ever!' He never faltered, but went straight up under a withering fire and took the German trench on the top and held it. It was splendid. Captain Osmond Williams does not seem to have been wounded then, but later, while drag- ging a wounded man to cover and being in a stooping position, a bullet entered the top of his shoulder and went through the lungs. lie could not be moved that night and had collapsed by morning. Two splendid fellows carried him back under-fire. He lingered until the 30th September, when he succumbed. A general officer who visited him said ;He talked mostly of his men, saying the regiment was simply splendid, the men all heroes. 'Tell my people,' he said, 'I was not last in the trench (as a matteir of fact he was first) and that we held on.' Sir John French came and sat with him. We buried him on Friday. A lot of his friends were there, and the grief among all the cavalry is Intense. He had made such a name for himself. He was a very gallant gentleman, and lie leaves a blank that can never be filled. He had such a wonderful personalty, and was beloved by every- one who knew him. Everyone in the cavalry di- vision adored him. The Hussars dug his grave and carried him to it." A brother officer writm:Never has a death caused more regret in this war, and: never has a 'field' funeral had such an attendance. Four gener- als, all the officers, and 70 or 80 men attejided. He could have had no greater compliment, as funer- als here are so common that half-a-dozen intimate friends is a fair tribute to the dead man. I don't suppose there was a single officer or man more universally known or admired." THROUGH THE RANKS TO DISTINCTION. A correspondent writing to the Times says:— "On leaving Eton during the Boer War Captain Osmond Williams obtained a direct commission in the 19th Hussars, without going through Sand- hurst, and, being a splendid horseman and good all-round athlete, did good service during tho campaign. He went through the Cavalry College on hi3 return home, and was paesed out by Sir R. Baden-Powell, then Inspector-General of Cavalry, as the best of the subalterns then in the British cavalry. While serving on the staff of the General Commanding at the Curragh, Osmond Williams had a fearful smash in the hunting-field, which kept him in bed for a year and necessitated his leaving the Service, he being declared Jo be not even sufficiently sound for the Reserve. Broken- hearted at this ending to his career, he went to the Andes on a shooting expedition, in the hope of recovering his health, and for some years shot and travelled and worked in South America until 1912, when, perfectly sound again, he returned home, and married Lady Gladys Finch-fiatton, daughter of the Earl of Winohilsea. They had not long settled down to a country home, with all the delights accompanying good" health a.nd ample means, when the war broke out. "As the War Office would not entertain his offer of service, of one pronounced unsound, Osmond Williams went off at once to York, where his former major of the 19th Husears, Sir P. Chetwode, was the .oommanding general. There ho enlisted in the Soots Greys, a.nd accompanied that regiment to Flanders, being for a time, dur- ing the retreat from Mons, the orderly of his former brother officer. His excellent service we- cured him promotion to sergeant, and later, after the successes on the Marne, Oimond Wil- liams was the firet, or one of the first, rankers to obtain a commission on the field of battle. As a sub-lieutenant in the Scots Greys he obtained the Distinguished Service Order, and when the new regiment of Welsh Guards was raised, his excel- lent service, and his father's position as Lord Lieutenant of a Welsh county, secured for him a captaincy in the reginvnt. For a few months he worked with his usual zeal in preparing his men for service, but was ever wild to return to the front, where, in due course, he went, with the sad result now reported. Many grand, fetiowe have fallen. But it is doubted if there are many who, after having had to leave the service for ill-health, have, like Osmond Williams, enlisted, and succeeded in fighting their way up with great distinction to a commission and in regain- ing almost the place to which they might have attained had their oareer not been checked by such an accident as that mentioned above."

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