Edwin Lyall Williams (18 June 1906 – 2 October 1994) was a prominent

Churches of Christ The Churches of Christ, also commonly known as the Church of Christ, is a loose association of autonomous Christian congregations located around the world. Typically, their distinguishing beliefs are that of the necessity of baptism for salvation ...

minister in Victoria and an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er who played with Hawthorn in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in east ...

(VFL).

Early life

The son of Arthur James Williams (1864–1935) and Annie Maria Williams, nee Petchell (1864–1928), Edwin Lyall Williams was born in Kaniva on 18 June 1906. After attending Sandsmere State School and then Nhill Higher Elementary School, Williams moved with his family to Ballarat in the early 1920s.

Football

Williams commenced his football career in Ballarat in 1923 before joining

Victorian Football Association The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in east ...

(VFA) club

Camberwell Camberwell ( ) is an List of areas of London, area of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark, southeast of Charing Cross. Camberwell was first a village associated with the church of St Giles' Church, Camberwell, St Giles ...

in 1928. In

1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...

he joined Hawthorn for two seasons before returning to Camberwell, playing until the end of the 1934 season.

Church

Ordained as a minister with the Church of Christ in 1928, Williams moved from a parish in Boronia to the Glenferrie Church of Christ in 1929. A popular minister, he had the education and gift of expression to speak with depth and subtlety about big issues. In 1936 Williams accepted a call to the ministry of the Church of Christ at

Ponsonby Road Ponsonby () is an inner-city suburb of Auckland located 2 km west of the Auckland CBD. The suburb is oriented along a ridge running north–south, which is followed by the main street of the suburb, Ponsonby Road. Ponsonby was originally ...

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. He returned to Australia to serve as Principal of the Church of Christ national college from 1945 to 1973.

Family

Edwin Lyall Williams married Bertha Lila Brown (1910–1996) on 25 January 1930 and they had two sons and a daughter together. Williams died at Murrumbeena on 2 October 1994.

Notes

External links

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Lyall Williams's playing statistics
from The VFA Project 1906 births 1994 deaths Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Hawthorn Football Club players Camberwell Football Club players Ballarat Football Club players 20th-century Australian clergy Australian expatriates in New Zealand Academic staff of the University of Divinity 20th-century Australian sportsmen {{AFL-bio-1906-stub