Reginald Murray Williams AO, CMG (1908-2003)

Reginald Murray (Reg) "R.M." Williams AO, CMG

Born 24 May 1908 in Belalie North, South Australia, Australia

Ancestors

Son of Joseph Hotspur Murray Williams and Fanny Effie Helen (Mitchell) Williams

Brother of Effie Helena (Williams) Gay and Daisy Elvena Williams

Husband of Thelma Ena (Cummings) Williams — married 25 May 1929 in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

[children unknown]

Died 4 Nov 2003 at age 95 in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia

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Profile last modified 8 May 2024 | Created 21 Nov 2017

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1 Biography
2 Sources

Biography

Reg Williams AO, CMG is Notable.

R.M. Williams ^[1]AO, ^[2]CMG was an Australian bushman who rose from a swagman to a millionaire He created an Australian style of clothing, hats, boots etc to be worn in the bush. The R.M. Williams brand is now known worldwide.

Birth

Reginald Murray Williams was born in Belalie North on 24 May 1908 ^[3]South Australia. He is better known as R.M. Williams.

Education

When he was 10 years old, his family moved to Adelaide so the children could go to a better school. However, at age 13 he left school.

Occupations

Coming from a relatively poor background, he got a 6-months job learning how to make cement in northwest Victoria before following it up using those skills on a job in Laverton, north of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, having got to Kalgoorlie from Port Augusta by train. He worked with a half-caste who taught him so much about bush craft as well, whom he wrote in his autobiography (see his books: Beneath Whose Hands in 1984, co-authored with Olaf Ruhen in the 1997 Sun edition, Ch.1 and Ch.2) was better in many ways than he was and gave him a far better education than he got at school. He would learn about aboriginal ceremonies and initiations, about hunting with boomerangs, foraging for food, and improved his reading skills with a Bible his religious mother had given him to take with her blessings when he went away, though his father disapproved of his decision.

After Laverton he came back to Oodnadatta in South Australia to learn to become a camel driver for a survey of indigenous people between Laverton and Oodnadatta, including getting together a team of camels with the help of an Afghan trader! The leader was a ‘mission’ man. Chapters 3, 4 and 5 continue the story of his incredible life which he almost lost on several occasions, including being amongst maltreated, hostile aborigines. Those 5 chapters cover a quarter of his autobiography! He was apparently age 18 when he started work as a camel driver and spent 3 years wandering through the Australian desert, living with Indigenous Australians and continuing to learn to survive in the bush.

Marriage

He would not return home again until after he married Thelma Ena Cummings on 25 May 1929, the day after his 21st birthday, in Adelaide, South Australia, when they settled in ^[3]South Australia's Flinders Ranges and would eventually have six children together, for details see Thelma's profile. They had previously met when he was not yet 16 years of age. He had a job carrying bricks on a property in the Adelaide Hills, which he lost when the Great Depression set in soon after. So they went north to the Flinders Ranges, managing to survive using some of the indigenous methods he had learnt and renewing previous contacts and making new ones.

Residences and occupations

He got a job out of Copley sinking wells to find water, which would lead to and allow the establishment of the Nepabunna United Aborigines Mission (see his books: Beneath Whose Hands in 1984, co-authored with Olaf Ruhen in the 1997 Sun edition, Ch.5, p.52). It was still a precarious existence, one that his great-grandfather did professionally (op.cit.). Was that his pioneer ancestor Thomas Williams (1826-1895)^[4], who emigrated to South Australia in 1847 on the ship "Cressy"?

Boots and all

A major turning point was when Dollar Mick arrived at his 'camp' and asked to stay (op.cit., p.55, who has 8 entries in the autobiography), which he did for years and became a lifelong friend. He had experience making saddles, rough but very good^[5]! R.M. had always been interested in making things with his hands since he watched his father Joe Williams working in the smithy when very young.

This would be the beginning of a multi-million dollar business, with both the saddles and the boots first crafted in the Northern Flinders Ranges and involving the skills of the indigenous people, e.g. Rufus James Wilton.

In 1933 at the height of the Great Depression, R.M. was desperately in need of money so he began making and selling saddles, at first to Sir Sidney Kidman, a wealthy pastoralist, whom he had met several years earlier at his Anna Creek station. He soon had a small factory operating in his father's shed in 5 Percy Street, Prospect, Adelaide, so he moved his family in from the Adelaide Hills and rented a house not far from his father's. His business grew rapidly.

See Charles Duguid's profile for their visit to Ernabella at the eastern end of the Musgrave Ranges in South Australia in 1935 and subsequent successful establishment of a Mission there in 1937 following Charles' request to R.M. to establish a committee for that purpose. The intent being that the Ernabella Mission would allow the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara to follow their own way of life, which was achieved.

With the birth of their 4th child in mid 1937, they needed a bigger house, so bought a former 'Governor's Residence', Governor George Gawler's, on Strangways Terrace in Adelaide. With the outbreak of WWII, his work was directed towards the needs of the armed services, and he too joined the Royal Australian Air Force.

He also became involved with the Nobles Nob gold mine, near Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory (Autobiography, pp.81 to 85). R.W started a national magazine, Hoofs and Horns, in 1944, for cattlemen and horsemen.

With the birth of their last child, Christopher Kerry Williams, R.M. promised Thelma he would buy the nearby MacGregor mansion 'Neidpath', in Strangways Terrace, rnever imagining he would be able to but did (op.cit., p.70)!

Visit to Asia

Ir seems that the vast change from rags to riches brought about a breakdown for R.M. and a friend advised him to have a complete change, going to India, Singapore, Hong Kong/China in 1948 (Autobiography, Ch.8, pp.86-89).

Separation

R.M. gives his insights into the breakdown of his marriage that would follow his return to South Australia (op.cit., Ch.9, pp.95-96), which ended in the 1950s.

He bought 55 hectares of land behind Yatala Labour Prison, South Australia, at Northfield and built a homestead. When the land was compulsorily acquired by the Sir Thomas Playford government, R.M. left ^[3]South Australia's Flinders Ranges. He left South Australia and moved to his property in Eidsvold, Queensland, vowing never to return to ^[3]South Australia.

Marriage and family

R.M. Williams remarried in 1955 to Erica Marjorie Nunn and had another four children with his second wife. In 1963 and 1968, Reginald Murray Williams, a grazier and Erica Marjorie Williams, doing home duties were at Rockybar, Eidsvold, in Queensland^[6]. They are again together on the 1972 and 1977 'Australia, Electoral Rolls, 1903-1980', at Hodgson Vale, via Toowoomba, with Reginald as a farmer, and Erica doing home duties^[7]. Altogether he had 10 children In 1985.

His most successful products are handcrafted riding boots. 2013, About 80% of R.M. Williams products are now made outside of Australia mostly in China and South East Asia including lace up footwear, leather bags and accessories, T-shirts, caps, seasonal shirts/shorts, polo shirts and some leather wallets.The company brand is a Texas longhorn cattle head.

R.M. became patron of the Australian Roughriders Association, and was involved with the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame which opened at Longreach in 1988. According to R.M. the Hall of Fame is about those men who left their tracks and nothing else. At the age of 72 he became Secretary of the Hall of Fame.

R.M. also wrote 35 books, among them

The Bushman's Handcrafts, in 1943

Saddle for a Throne in 1952

Beneath Whose Hands in 1984.

I Once Met A Man in 1989,

A Song of the Desert in 1998,

Australian Bush Classics in 2001

Animal Stories in 2002.

He co-wrote his autobiography Beneath Whose Hands with Olaf Ruhen.

Death and cremation

R.M. Williams died on 4th November 2003 at the age of 95 on his property in Toowoomba, Queensland according to his 'Australia and New Zealand, Find a Grave Index' record^[8]. This record also has that he was cremated on 13 november 2003 in Toowoomba Garden of Remembrance Cemetery, in Toowoomba, Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. He concluded his autobiography, first published in 1984, with an appropriate epitaph:- "What a waste of time, climbing to the pinnacle of success only to slide willingly down the long slope to a humble but happy campfire where I belong".

legacies

The Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame, which occupied him from 1972 to 1983.

Founded the Australian Roughriders Association, with 2 others in 1944.

Helped to form the Equestrian Federation of Australia 1951

Led a committee which initiated and planned the Bicentennial National Trail.

A major road in South Australia has been named the RM Williams Way

List of Honours

In 1985 Williams was appointed ^[2]a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG), for services to the outback community.

In 1992 he was named an ^[1]Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), for service to business and to the community.

In 2001 he was awarded the Centenary Medal.

Sources

Birth Given Name(s): Reginald Murray Last Name: WILLIAMS Birth Date: 1908, May 24 Gender: M Father: Joseph Oscar Murray WILLIAMS Mother: Fanny MITCHELL Birth Place/Residence: Belalie District: Clare Symbol:Book/Page: 802/478 Genealogy

United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKWH-JRJF : accessed 25 April 2019), Reginald Murray Williams, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, 08 Nov 2003; from "Recent Newspaper Obituaries (1977 - Today)," database, GenealogyBank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com : 2014); citing Sun, The, born-digital text.

The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995) p.17; 12th August 1993 Article R.M. Williams float option
The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995) p.19; 24th June, 1993 Article R.M. Williams not for sale yet
R.M. Williams.com - Our history R.M. Williams
Wikipedia - R.M. Williams
R.M. Footsteps - The amazing story of a Australian icon, Entrepreneur, Poet and Bushman