I would imagine everyone over the age of 50 has heard of the black comedian Charlie Williams? In 1955 he became the first black footballer to play for Doncaster Rovers but his real claim to fame was as the first successful black comedian. He came to prominence in the early 1970s in ‘The Comedians’, a show where stand-up comics simply told a succession of jokes. Charlie then branched into other areas of show business and in 1973/74 hosted ‘The Golden Shot’, a ‘must watch’ programme on Sunday afternoons for most of the population of Britain between 1967 and 1975.
Charlie was a Yorkshireman through and through. He had a rich Yorkshire accent and, living in South Yorkshire as a lad, would have had little experience of other black people or cultures. His school photograph below shows just how ‘white’ the village of South Hiendley was when Charlie was a boy.
Charlie achieved great fame and fortune. He was awarded an MBE and although he died in 2006, he is still revered in the Barnsley area and commemorated by a Blue Plaque outside the town’s Civic Hall.
So, Charlie hardly meets the Historycal Roots requirement of someone whose “role has been overlooked.” One man certainly fitting that description is Charlie’s father, because Charlie wasn’t the only black person in South Hiendley, there were two, Charlie, and his dad, Charles.
Charles remains a man of mystery. Much of what little has been written about him is inaccurate or unproven. What follows is his story as we understand it.
Even his middle name is in dispute. References to both Augustus and Adolphus can be found, but at the time of his death he was Charles Hall Williams. His date of birth is likewise uncertain. Some sources say 17 March 1879 but when Charles himself completed his entry for the 1939 Register he quoted 24 March 1880. When he died on 5 October 1944 he was said to be 63 which would mean he was born in 1881. Like so many things about Charles, we are unlikely to ever know the full truth.
It is generally accepted that Charles was born in Barbados, went to sea as a young man and served in World War 1 before moving to Yorkshire when the War was over.
Certainly at the end of the 19th century there was much poverty in the Caribbean. Many young men like Charles left to try and make a better life for themselves elsewhere. It would be perfectly logical for Charles to go to sea and at some point, end up in England.
Some sources suggest Charles served with the Royal Engineers from November 1915 to November 1916 during World War 1. This claim seems to be based mistakenly on the military record of another Charles Augustus Williams. Extensive research has revealed that the soldier in question was born in Kensington (London) in 1875 and by 1911 was living in Willesden Green with his wife Frances and their two children. The couple were married in Hendon in 1909. Clearly this is not ‘our’ Charles Williams.
Although there is no firm evidence that Charles ever served in World War 1 it would be difficult for him to avoid getting involved in the conflict. As he was almost certainly a seaman immediately before the War he would have naturally become a merchant seaman during the War. The National Maritime Crew Lists for 1914/15 have three entries under the name of C Williams with a birthplace of Barbados and roughly the same age as Charles. The details quoted would suggest that these were three separate people but the one thing they have in common are addresses in Hull. That might help explain how Charles came to settle in Yorkshire?
The first fully confirmed trace we have of Charles is in Royston, South Yorkshire in 1919. Quite why Charles, now around 40 years of age, visited and ultimately stayed in this tiny Yorkshire town is a further mystery. Perhaps at the end of the War he had disembarked in the south of England and was making his way back to Hull?
He lived at 4, Lane Cottages with a lady called Letty Williams. It isn’t known if Charles and Letty were related. Charles then moved to Anchor House, Church Hill, Royston in 1925.
Anchor House was in all probability a boarding house and it was while he lived here that Frances (known as Doris) Cook nee Harrison became pregnant with Charles’ son and on 27 December 1927 Charles Adolphus Williams was born. Doris already had a son, Alvin, who had been born in 1923. Alvin was not Charles’ child.
Doris and Charles had a second child, Doris, a couple of years later. It would appear that mother Doris had trouble coping with the situation she found herself in. Charles brought up Charlie alone and baby Doris went to live with her mother’s family. It was to be 1957 before Charlie saw his mother again. Charlie took his father’s surname.
In 1929 Charles and Charlie moved to 12, Lake’s Buildings in the tiny village of South Hiendley. The pair lived there together for the rest of Charles’ life. Incidentally the electoral roll for 1929 showed Charles as Charles Hall Williams for the first time.
Even nowadays it is not always easy to bring up a child as a single parent. Imagine how much more difficult it must have been for Charles in the 1930s. The Welfare state did not exist and Charles had to strive hard to keep a roof over his and Charlie’s heads. At one point he had a horse-drawn travelling shop and he later worked at Monckton pit as a coal hewer. Ill health put a stop to that and by 1939 he was shown as retired. There would have been little income and no luxuries in the Williams’ household. Charlie himself got a job at Monkton Colliery when he was only 14 years old in 1942.
Father and son built up a strong bond. Charlie became the first Williams to be able to read and write. He would read to his father every evening once he had finished playing sport with his friends in the village.
Charles was said to be around 6 feet tall and as strong as an ox until ill health overcame him. He was an excellent cook, a skill he had picked up during his time at sea. Although illiterate he was clearly very wise and passed this wisdom onto his son. He taught Charlie the futility of getting into fights “it simply means having to buy a new suit.” He always felt that he didn’t suffer discrimination because he was the only black man in the village and therefore was not perceived as a threat by the white population [1].
By 1944 Charles’ body could take no more and he passed away on 5 October 1944. The cause of death was shown as exhaustion and stomach cancer. He was buried at St Peter’s Church in Felkirk, South Hiendley. His name is recorded as Charles Hall Williams.
Charles’ grave is now unmarked. It is the empty patch of grass to the left of the gravestone in the picture below.
To sum up:
- although we would love to be proved wrong, we doubt that Charles Williams served in the Royal Engineers, the suggestion (in many sources) appears to stem from a case of mistaken identity;
- there is doubt about his exact date of birth, a doubt that is unlikely ever to be conclusively resolved; there is even doubt about his middle name, ‘Augustus’, ‘Adolphus’ and ‘Hall’ have all been used;
- no one really knows how, after the First World War, he came to be living in a small Yorkshire village; but
- one thing we can be sure of is that, although he lived a tough life, he raised a son he would have been proud of.
By Bill Hern
[1] The anecdotal material quoted in this article comes from ‘The Charlie Williams Story’ by Stephen D Smith, Neville-Douglas Publishing Limited, 1998