James Howard Williams

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For other people named James Williams, see James Williams (disambiguation).

James Williams
Born15 November 1897
St Just, Cornwall, U.K.
Died30 July 1958(1958-07-30) (aged 60)
Penzance, Cornwall, U.K.
NationalityBritish
EducationQueen's College, Taunton
Alma materCamborne School of Mines
Occupation(s)Soldier, Forester and Writer
SpouseSusan Margaret Rowland

James Howard Williams, also known as Elephant Bill (15 November 1897 – 30 July 1958), was a British soldier and elephant expert in Burma, known for his work with the

OBE
in 1945.

Early life

Williams was born at St Just, Cornwall, the son of a Cornish mining engineer who had returned from South Africa and his wife, a Welshwoman. He was educated at

Bombay-Burmah Trading Corporation as a forester working with elephants to extract teak logs.[2][3]

He served in World War I in the Devonshire Regiment; he was in the

Rangoon or Mandalay. Elephants were essential to the harvesting of teak, a single healthy elephant could be sold for $150,000 (2000 U.S.), and thousand of elephants were sold this way.[4]

World War II and after

Tamu, and across five thousand foot mountains into Manipur and the Imphal Plain. Williams was attached to one evacuation party, which included his wife and children. The Kabaw Valley was nicknamed "The Valley of Death" because of the hundreds of refugees who died there from exhaustion, starvation, cholera, dysentery and smallpox
.

Williams was then employed in timber surveys in

sappers
" i.e. as part of the Royal Engineers for use in bridge building in places where heavy equipment could otherwise not be brought in, the Royal Indian Army Service Corps wanted them to be regarded simply as a branch of transport, an under-utilization of the real benefit of elephants Williams believed. Many elephants were captured by the Japanese, and some recaptured elephants had to be cured after being attacked by Allied fighters, or from acid burns from wireless batteries carried on their backs in straw-lined boxes.

Williams was known as Sabu, then Elephant Bill. Sir

XIVth Army, wrote about elephants in his introduction to the book Elephant Bill: "They built hundreds of bridges for us, they helped to build and launch more ships for us than Helen
ever did for Greece. Without them our retreat from Burma would have been even more arduous and our advance to its liberation slower and more difficult."

After World War II he retired to St Buryan, Cornwall, as an author and market gardener. He married Susan Margaret Rowland in 1932 after they met in Burma; they had a son Treve and daughter Lamorna while in Burma.[5] After his death, his wife Susan Williams wrote of her life with him in The Footprints of Elephant Bill.[6]

Works

  • Elephant Bill (Rupert Hart-Davis, London, 1950) (account of his experiences with elephants in Burma)
    • also published as: Elephant Bill, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1956
  • Bandoola (Rupert Hart-Davis, London, 1953) (Bandoola, named after General Maha Bandoola, was one of the elephants he knew; the content complements that of Elephant Bill)
  • The Spotted Deer (Rupert Hart-Davis, London, 1957) (on forestry, in the Andaman Islands)
  • Big Charlie (Rupert Hart-Davis, London, 1959) (about elephants)
  • In Quest of a Mermaid (Rupert Hart-Davis, London, 1960) (travel in Burma)
Film project

A film Bandoola was planned in 1956 by

Ceylon from November that year with Ernest Borgnine and Sophia Loren in the leading roles.[7]

Bibliography
  • Vicki Croke, Elephant Company: The Inspiring Story of an Unlikely Hero and the Animals Who Helped Him Save Lives in World War II, (Random House, 2014)
  • Susan Williams, The footprints of Elephant Bill, (Kimber, 1962)

References
  1. ^ "Lieut.Colonel J. H. Williams - "Elephant Bill"". Obituary. The Times. No. 54217. London. 31 July 1958. col D, p. 10.
  2. ^ "Jim Williams". Retrieved 30 April 2009.
  3. ^ Account of the author on cover of Elephant Bill, Penguin Books, 1956
  4. ISBN 978-0812981650
    .
  5. ^ George Pritchard (RootsWeb)
  6. David McKay Company
    , N.Y. 1963)
  7. ^ "Sophia Loren Archives: 1956". Retrieved 12 July 2011.

Sources

  • Obituary in The Times (London) of 31 July 1958 page 10.
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