David Williams was a pioneer in the development of emergency medicine in the UK and the first president of the Faculty of Accident and Emergency Medicine, which later became the Royal College of Emergency Medicine. He was born in Bramhall, Cheshire on 23 April 1938. His father, Frank Williams, was a senior engineer at the BBC; his mother was Kathleen Williams née Davies. When he was a small child, the family moved to London, and he was educated at Highgate School. He also spent a year at the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut as an English Speaking Union scholar. He went on to Trinity College, Cambridge and then St Thomas’s Hospital Medical School, qualifying in 1964. After house posts, he was a resident medical officer at the Middlesex Hospital. He gained his MRCP in 1970, trained in psychiatry and then spent a year as a GP, gaining his MRCGP in 1972. In 1973 he joined a pilot programme to train the first 32 consultants in accident and emergency medicine and was appointed as the first accident and emergency consultant at the Middlesex Hospital. In 1984 he moved to St Thomas’ Hospital, where he was clinical director of the emergency department. During his time at the hospital he was responsible for the care of survivors of several major incidents, including the 1988 Clapham Junction rail crash, the sinking in 1989 of the *Marchioness* river boat, an IRA bus bombing in the Aldwych in February 1996 and, in 1999, a neo-Nazi bomb attack on a market in Brixton. He worked to amalgamate the accident and emergency departments of St Thomas’ and Guy’s hospitals, creating the then largest such department in the UK. He retired in 2000. He was president of the British Association for Emergency Medicine from 1987 to 1990. As chairman of the Intercollegiate Board in Accident and Emergency Medicine from 1991 to 1993 he was instrumental in navigating what he called the ‘diplomatic quagmire’ of persuading six royal colleges to support the formation of the intercollegiate Faculty of Accident and Emergency Medicine (now the Royal College of Emergency Medicine). He was the first president of the Faculty (from 1993 to 1997). He was also one of the founders of the European Society for Emergency Medicine and president from 2004 to 2007, and president of the then newly established section of emergency medicine of the Union Européenne des Médecins Spécialistes. He gave keynote lectures in North America, Australia and Europe. In his retirement he was a clinical adviser to the Health Service Ombudsman, a member of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal and a magistrate. He enjoyed reading, collecting books, theatre, travel and playing bridge. David Williams died on 3 October 2021 of respiratory failure. He was 83. He was survived by his wife Ann (née Walker Watson), a modern languages teacher, their two children, Jonathan and Antonia, and two stepchildren, Lucy and Martin.