Williams, Hamilton, Naval Instructor and Writer, 1845-1924.

The collection consists of eleven volumes of transcripts, lectures and notes on naval history.

Administrative / biographical background
Williams was born in 1845, the second son of the Rev. William Williams, vicar of Croft in Lincolnshire. He was an assistant paymaster in the Royal Navy, before leaving the service to study for a Master of Arts degree at Pembroke College, Oxford. He was an instructor in English literature attached to the cadet training ship HMS BRITANNIA at Dartmouth, between 1877 and 1905. Williams was author of 'Britain's Naval Power: A Short History of the Growth of the British Navy', published in two parts in 1898. He died at Torquay in 1924. His record of service in the Royal Navy in the period 1862-1866 can be found under the references ADM 196/11/959 and ADM 196/79/1004 at The National Archives.