Eric Williams 1896 – 1976
Eric was born on 24th January 1896 in Ruabon, Denbyshire, to Edward and Clara (maiden name unknown). Edward was born in Derbyshire and by 1911 had moved the family down to 3 The Terrace, working as a stationary engineman at the colliery.
Eric’s sister, Elizabeth Ann, married Edmund Stanley Virgo, son of the village Station Master. His older brother, Charles Edward, who also worked at the Guilford Colliery as an engine driver, died at home in 1913, aged 24.
Finding details of Eric’s WW1 experience has proved difficult as there are at least 36 men listed with this name, however it is known that he survived the War.
In 1920, he won a billiard cue at the opening of the new Men’s Sports and Social Club in premises on Church Hill belonging to Mr Goldfinch, and in early 1922, he married Gladys J Howell in the King’s Norton area of Worcestershire.
Eric was also part of the Tennis Club and there are mentions of his wife singing at a music competition in Shepherdswell in 1924. By 1939, Eric and Gladys were living in Eastry; he was a winding engineer at the colliery and she was described as a ‘teacher of mental deficient’.
Eric probably died in 1976 aged 80, in the Dover District.