Born 14 February 1864 at St Giles, Torrington, Devon, the second son and third child of Thomas Hadley Williams, foreign correspondent, and Rachel Brimsmead, his wife. He was educated at West Buckland College, Devon, and graduated in medicine from the Western Medical College, Ontario in 1889. He was appointed head of the department of surgery and clinical surgery in the University of Western Ontario in 1909, was surgeon to the Victoria Hospital, and a member of the staff of St Joseph's Hospital. He was elected one of the original Fellows of the American College of Surgeons. He married Elsie Perrin on 5 February 1905, who survived him without children; he died suddenly from coronary thrombosis on 23 December 1932, and was buried at Windermere, London, Ontario.