TOPIC:

There are details of the NSW AMC here.

An excellent thread started by Steve on Sergeant Burden here.

Picture courtesy of Noonan's

[ KCMG ];
[ CB ];
[ Order of St John, Knight of Grace ];
Egypt (1) Suakin 1885 (Surgn. Maj: W. D. C. Williams. (P.M.O.) N.S.W. Contgt.);
QSA (4) Cape Colony, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill, Wittebergen, clasp block loose on riband (Colonel W. D. C. Williams. N.S.W., A.M.C.)

KCMG London Gazette 3 June 1916: ‘For services rendered in connection with Military Operations in the Field.’

CB London Gazette 19 April 1901: ‘In recognition of his services in connection with the Campaign in South Africa 1899-1900’.

Knight of Grace, Order of St. John London Gazette 4 March 1904.

Sir William Daniel Campbell Williams was born in Sydney on 30 July 1856 and was educated at Sydney Grammar School, before studying medicine at University College, London. Appointed Staff Surgeon to the New South Wales Permanent Artillery on 1 October 1883, he was advanced Major in 1884 and served a Principal Medical Officer to the New South Wales Sudan Contingent in 1885, being mentioned in a special despatch.

Returning home to Sydney, Williams was appointed Principal Medical Officer of the New South Wales Forces, and during the period 1888–91 he reorganised the army medical services, introducing a well-trained permanent Medical Staff Corps. The Corps was equipped with improved light ambulance wagons of Williams’s own design, lightweight stretchers, mounted stretcher bearers and an intensive training program for Corps members.

Following the outbreak of the Boer War in 1899, Williams mobilised two contingents of the New South Wales Army Medical Corps, and as their Colonel led the first contingent to South Africa. His highly mobile medical units, which could keep up with the forward troops, provided an excellent service, and he was consequently appointed by Lord Roberts as Principal Medical Officer of the Australian and New Zealand Contingents on 11 January 1900. Williams saw subsequent service during the Boer War as Principal Medical Officer to Sir Ian Hamilton’s Mounted Infantry Division; and later as Principal Medical Officer to Sir Archibald Hunter’s Field Force, and took part in the operations in the Orange Free State, Transvaal, Orange River Colony, and Cape Colony; and in the actions at Johannesburg, Pretoria, Diamond Hill, Bethlehem, Wittebergen, and Wittepoort. A British war correspondent described Williams as 'the first man I have met who seems to be a master of Army medical work in the field'. For his services in South Africa he was promoted to Surgeon General; was Mentioned in Despatches (London Gazette 16 April 1901); and was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath. He was also appointed a Knight of Grace of the Order of St John of Jerusalem.

In 1902 Williams was appointed as the Australian Army’s inaugural Director General of Medical Services, in which role he drew together the disparate former colonial military medical services into the Australian Army Medical Service and oversaw the establishment of the Australian Army Nursing Service in 1903. Following the outbreak of the Great War he was appointed Director of Medical Services, Australian Imperial Force, for service overseas. However, by now aged 58, greatly overweight and physically unfit, he was in poor shape for the rigours of the campaigns ahead, and upon arrival in Egypt was immediately sent on to London, where he did useful work procuring motor ambulances, medical equipment, and pharmaceutical supplies for the Australian Imperial Force’s medical units. Subsequently attached to the Australian High Commission on war work, he returned home in failing health in 1916; was Mentioned in Despatches (London Gazette 21 June 1916); and was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George in that year’s Birthday Honours’ List. He retired from the Army in 1917, and died of heart disease in Melbourne in May 1919, being buried with full military honours.