James Ralph Williams

Williams, James Ralph was born at Penarth in 1877, and is a son of the late Colonel James Williams. Educated at Marlborough College, and also in France and Switzerland. Returned to Cardiff some twenty-five years ago and entered his father's office - the style of the firm then being Watts, Williams & Co. He has had a strenuous business career, and is today the resident director of Messrs. Watts, Watts & Co., Ltd., who are the sole shipping agents for the Uniled National Collieries Ltd., the proprietors of the Risca, National, Standard and Bute Collieries. The United National Collieries have acquired an area of about 5,500 acres, with three winding pits at Risca and two at Wattstown, two at Standard and two at Treherbert, and their combined output amounts to about one-and-three-quarter million tons per annum. Messrs. Watts, Watts & Co,. Ltd., are also the sole shippers of the coals worked by Messrs. Burnyeat, Brown & Co., Ltd., the proprietors of the Abergorky Colliery at Treorky, in the Rhondda Valley of Glamorgan, and the Nine Mile Point Colliery near Ynvsddu, in the Sirhowy Valley of Monmouthshire. The mineral properties which the latter company work are of a total area of about three-and-a-half thousand acres, with an average output of over one-and-a-quarter million tons per annum. Employment is given to upwards of 10,000 workpeople. In addition to this vast coal-producing and coal-shipping business, Watts, Watts & Co., Ltd., are also managers of the Britain Steamship Company, Ltd., a firm which was established in 1883, and operates a fleet of more than twenty steamers, having an aggregate capacity of over 120,000 tons. A large import trade in pitwood in the Bristol Channel is also conducted. Mr. J. Ralph Williams has taken a lively interest in athletics, having been hon. secretary of the hockey section of the Newport Athletic Club, and has played for Wales. Has also taken a keen interest in cricket and played for Newport and the county for years. Is fond of tennis. During the war served with the R.F.A. for some two-and-a-half to three years. Was a sidesman at All Saints' Church prior to the war, and was interested in the young men's clubs. In the old days his father was Lieut.- colonel of the 1st Mon. R.G.A. (Vol.), now the 4th Welsh R.F.A. Through the generosity of the family, the spacious residence at Brynglas, Newport, was placed at the disposal of the British Red Cross Society, and used by them as a convalescent home for the whole period of the war.