Researching Robert Williams

He was born in Swansea, Wales, and began his working life as a coal trimmer at the docks. He became active in his union, the National Amalgamated Labourers' Union, at the age of 16 and eventually became its president. He also served as a Labour Party councillor in Swansea from 1910 to 1912.

In 1912, Williams was elected as the first secretary of the National Transport Workers' Federation. In this role, he unsuccessfully campaigned for its affiliates to amalgamate into a single union. He opposed World War I, and was a leading member of the Union of Democratic Control. An active member of the Labour Party, he stood in Aberavon at the 1918 general election, but as a supporter of the October Revolution, he joined the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1920.

In 1920 he was part of a deputation of British trade unionists who travelled to Moscow for talks on the founding of a new trade union international, which was formed the following year as the Red International of Labour Unions. That year, he was elected as President of the International Transport Workers' Federation, and served five years in that position.

Although the Transport Workers were signatories to the Triple Alliance, allying them with the Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) and the National Union of Railwaymen, on 15 April 1921 Williams decided not to support strike action in support of miners who had seen their wages cut, a decision which became known as "Black Friday". He was expelled from the Communist Party, and renewed his membership of the Labour Party the following year.

Williams stood unsuccessfully for Labour in Coventry at the 1923 and 1924 general elections, but was elected to the National Executive Committee of the party, serving as its chair in 1925. However, after criticising the attitude of the miners during the 1926 general strike, he was de-selected. He also stood down from his National Transport Workers' Federation post, the organisation having become increasingly irrelevant with the establishment of the Transport and General Workers' Union.

Williams also played a prominent role in establishing the Amalgamated Marine Workers' Union in 1922 as an NTWF-sponsored rival to Havelock Wilson's shipowner-friendly National Union of Seamen. From 1922 until 1930, Williams was General Manager of the Daily Herald.

Following his removal from all his labour movement posts, Williams supported Ramsay MacDonald's National Labour Party split. Unable to find regular work, he committed suicide in 1936.

Williams was born in Farmington, Missouri. He graduated from the Missouri School of Journalism in 1931. His first published story was "Zero as a Limit", which appeared in Astounding Science Fiction in 1937, under the pseudonym of "Robert Moore". He was a prolific author throughout his career, his last novel appearing in 1972. His "Jongor" series was originally published in Fantastic Adventures in the 1940s and 1950s, and appeared in book form in 1970. By the 1960s he had published over 150 stories.

Robert Williams (25 May 1830 - 5 August 1877), usually referred to by his bardic name Trebor Mai, was a Welsh language poet, born at Ty'n-yr-ardd near Llanrhychwyn, near Llanrwst, in the old county of Caernarfonshire, the son of a tailor. He was educated at a local Llanrhychwyn school and for a period attended the free school at Llanrwst. Around 1843, he moved with his family to Llanrwst and he applied himself to his father's craft. After he married on 13 October 1854 he commenced business as a tailor himself in Llanrwst, and remained there for the rest of his life. He died in 1877, aged 47.

Trebor Mai is chiefly remembered today for his englynion. He published two small volumes in his lifetime, Fy Noswyl (1861) and Y Geninen (1869). The contents of these with large additions were published posthumously as Gwaith Barddonol Trebor Mai (Isaac Ffoulkes, Liverpool, 1883).

His albums include:*Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band:**Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)**Doc At The Radar Station*Hugh Cornwell and Robert Williams:**Nosferatu*Robert Williams:**"Buy My Record"**"Late One Night" **"Date with the Devils Daughter" - The first song, Hello Robert, consists of messages that Larry "Wild Man" Fischer left on Robert Williams phone**Temporary Immortal (as Beefheart Jr.)*The Spo-it's**Free Sex AVT003*Zoogz Rift**Five Billion Pinheads Can't Be Wrong AVT001

Williams made his debut for Oxfordshire in the 1995 MCCA Knockout Trophy against Berkshire. Williams played Minor counties cricket for Oxfordshire from 1995 to 2011, which included 79 Minor Counties Championship matches and 33 MCCA Knockout Trophy matches. He made his List A debut against Lancashire in the 1996 NatWest Trophy. He played 4 further List A matches, the last coming against Herefordshire in the 1st round of the 2004 Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy which was held in 2003. In his 5 List A matches he scored 55 runs at a batting average of 11.00, with a high score of 22.

He has previously played for the Northamptonshire Second XI and the Gloucestershire Second XI.

He was born in Fitzroy to American-born grain merchant Robert Williams and Fanny Kendall. He attended state school and worked for his father before following the gold rush to Western Australia in the 1890s. Having been unsuccessful, he returned to Victoria and became a caterer and hotelier. He served on South Melbourne City Council from 1921 to 1932 and was mayor from 1927 to 1928. In 1922 he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Council as a Labor member for Melbourne West Province. He was a minister without portfolio from 1927 to 1928 and from 1929 to 1931, and Minister of Forests and Public Health from 1931 to 1932. He was Minister of Public Works, Mines and Immigration and Minister of Labour in 1932, but later that year was expelled from the Labor Party after supporting the Premiers' Plan. He remained in the Council as an independent until he was killed in a car crash at Wagga Wagga in 1938.