Philip Hamlyn Williams - Historian: September 2022

Friday 9 September 2022

HM Queen Elizabeth II and the RAOC

My father's archive includes correspondence with Buckingham Palace from not long after her Coronation exploring the possibility of her visiting the Corps of which she was Colonel in Chief. The exchange of letters concluded in 1957 with arrangements for a visit to Deepcut.

The visit took place on 11 April 1958 and the Queen was hosted by Major General Sir Lancelot Cutforth as Director of Ordnance Services and my father, Major General Sir Leslie Williams, as Colonel Commandant. This is one of the photographs taken of the visit.

There is a film of the visit which I am sure is held at the RLC Museum. There are further photographs in my father's archive which is also held at the museum.

Following the visit the Queen's private secretary wrote a letter of thanks saying how interesting the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh had found it. The letter is reproduced in Dunkirk to D Day with permission of the Palace.

About me

Phil Hamlyn Williams's most recent project was the exploration of an assertion that Britain Created the Manufacturing World. The resulting books were published by Pen & Sword in 2022 and APS Books in December 2023.

Dunkirk to D Day - the stories of some of the RAOC men who fought in both world wars and who masterminded Ordnance supply for D Day, was published by Pen & Sword on 30 April.

His previous book, Ordnance, tells the story of the men and women who equipped the British Army for the Great War. It was published by The History Press in June 2018. His first book, War on Wheels, telling the story of the thousands of ordinary men and women who together worked to mechanise the British Army in WW2, was published by The History Press in September 2016. He wrote the story of the MacRobert's Reply collaborating with Story Terrace, published in December 2016. This is the story of an aeroplane, the woman who bought it and the men who flew it. He also wrote Charlotte Bronte's Devotee about William Smith Williams, the man who discovered and mentored Charlotte Bronte and a host of Victorian writers and artists. He writes family histories for Story Terrace and comments regularly on contemporary issues his own blogs. He is chair of trustees at The Lincoln Arts Trust which ran the Lincoln Drill Hall arts venue. He also chairs The Lincoln Book Festival.

He was awarded an MA in Professional Writing at University College Falmouth in 2009. He has been writing for fifteen years, having spent much of his career in professional services, most recently as a partner in Price Waterhouse, and in the not for profit sector.

Philip Hamlyn Williams - Historian

The final book of the trilogy on army supply

Friday 9 September 2022

HM Queen Elizabeth II and the RAOC

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