Brigadier Edward Stephen Bruce Williams CBE (2 November 1892 – 20 January 1977) was a distinguished British Army officer whose career spanned 35 years.
Williams was born in Pinhoe, Devon, the son of Major-General Sir Hugh Bruce Williams (1865-1942), KCB, DSO (who in 1920 adopted the surname "Bruce-Wiliams", Bruce being his mother's maiden surname), of Chillies, near Crowborough, Sussex,[1] who served with the Royal Engineers,[2][3] and Mabel Augusta (1867-1945), daughter of stockbroker Stephen Heward, of Toronto, Canada (nephew of the politician and lawyer Sir John Robinson, 1st Baronet, of Toronto).
Among his fellow graduates were Montagu Stopford, also of the Rifle Brigade, John Evetts, Kenneth Anderson and Eric Nares, all of whom would become general officers.
[10] On 15 May 1915 he was promoted to captain,[11] while seeing action in the Gallipoli Campaign and, from October 1915 to March 1916, he served in Egypt.
[8] From 14 March 1916 to June 1916, Williams was a General Staff Officer Grade 3 (GSO3) with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF).
[8] He served shortly after the war in Iraq, where took part in military action to put down the Iraqi revolt against the British, for which he received a medal for.
[8] In February 1940, he was promoted to acting brigadier[15] and, returning to the United Kingdom, placed in command of the 182nd Infantry Brigade, a second-line Territorial Army brigade, which formed part of the 61st Infantry Division, from February 1940 to July 1941, serving mainly in Northern Ireland on anti-invasion duties.
Later in 1944, Williams became part of the BGS in East Africa Command, a position he held from 14 February 1944 to 1946.
[16] Following the end of the war, Williams was granted the rank of honorary brigadier on 30 December 1946, the date of which he retired from active service.
[19] In that season he scored his maiden double century against Oxford University when opening the batting in the Army first-innings.
One of their sons, David Arden Bruce Williams (1940–2007) was a Colonel in the Royal Green Jackets.