Aeneas Francon Williams, FRSGS (17 February 1886 – 9 December 1971) was a Minister of the Church of Scotland, a missionary, chaplain, writer, and poet. Williams was a missionary in the Eastern Himalayas and China and writer of many published works.
Aeneas Francon Williams was born at 15 Leonard Street, Liscard, Wirral, Cheshire, the second son of four to John Francon Williams FRGS, and Barbara Balmain Dougall. Aeneas had three brothers, John Balmain, David Dougal Williams FRSA and George Stanley, and a sister, Margaret Mary Ann Williams. Aeneas was baptized at St. Peter's Church, Liverpool, on 20 July 1886. During Aeneas's formative years, he was educated privately. From 1900 to 1906, Aeneas attended the Technical Institute and Student Teacher Centre in Walthamstow, and from 1906 to 1908, he attended the University of Edinburgh and Moray House Training College. In 1932 Aeneas returned to Edinburgh, where he studied at the University of Edinburgh New College for a further two years.
Aeneas's father, John Francon Williams, born in 1854 in the village of Llanllechid in Caernarvonshire, North Wales, was a published writer, newspaper editor, geographer, inventor, historian and cartographer. Aeneas's mother, Barbara, was born in Perthshire, Scotland.
By 1901, the Williams family was living at Queens Grove Road in the affluent area of Chingford, Essex, where, on the 1901 England and Wales Census, Aeneas aged 15, is recorded as being an artist and painter.
At the age of twenty-four, Aeneas Williams attended the 1910 World Missionary Conference hosted at the Assembly Hall in Edinburgh from 14 to 23 June. The conference is a marker for the beginning of the modern Protestant Christian ecumenical movement. The Church of Scotland missionary John Anderson Graham appeared at the conference both as a guest speaker and as a member of the audience. He was also there to encourage donations to aid his mission St Andrew's Colonial Home in Kalimpong, West Bengal. The Protestant Christian Missionary community slogan drove the conference's spirit: 'The Evangelization of the World in this Generation.' Whether Aeneas attended one meeting, or several is undocumented, but during the event he got his calling to become a missionary. Later that same year, Aeneas arrived in India and was stationed in Kalimpong at St Andrew's Colonial Home (later renamed Dr. Graham's Homes) – an orphanage/school – where he was the assistant schoolmaster and taught mathematics, Geography and Science. As the school expanded, Williams took on the role of Bursar. His official residence was Wolseley House in the grounds of the school. The house was named after Sir Capel Charles Wolseley, 9th Baronet, who was the secretary of the fund-raising delegation London Committee–a committee formed to solicit funds for Indian missions. The committee funded the building of St. George's Homes in Pulney Hills, Kodaikanal, founded by Rev. John Breeden in 1914, which was based upon St Andrew's Colonial Homes, hence the connection. Breeden and Wolseley visited St. Andrew's Colonial Homes to draw up plans for St. George's Homes.
Aeneas quickly settled into his life at St. Andrew's as a missionary and took on several other roles, including financial adviser to Dr. John Anderson Graham, and as a fundraiser for the children's home. Kalimpong was the centre of missionary activity in the region, with Darjeeling steadfastly remaining the political powerhouse. In Darjeeling, missionaries played a supporting role to the official political figures and aristocracy that governed the region. In Kalimpong that reversed, missionaries reigned supreme.
On 2 December 1914, Aeneas and Clara Anne Rendall were married at Macfarlane Memorial Church in Kalimpong by Rev. Evan Mackenzie. Dr. John Anderson Graham officiated as best man and a witness at the ceremony. Clara (a true Orcadian) was born on 24 July 1887 in Kirkwall on the Orkney Islands and was also a Church of Scotland missionary and taught French at St. Andrew's Colonial school. Clara's uncle, William Kent (her mother's brother), married Euphemia Janet Rosina Ogilvy of the Clan Ogilvy, a descendant of Robert the Bruce King of Scots.
Aeneas was a keen sportsman and footballer and played outside forward (left-wing) in the Grahams' home football team. On 7 October 1916, Clara gave birth to twins, Alfred Francon and Beatrice Clara. Rev. John Anderson Graham baptized Alfred and Beatrice in Kalimpong on 19 November 1916. Aeneas and his growing family remained at St Andrew's Colonial Home until 1924.
Williams’ first book, A Pronouncement of the Public Conscience, was published in 1921. At the beginning of January 1921, Aeneas, his wife, and their two young offspring (aged 4) sailed from Calcutta on board the (Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company Line) SS Soudan en route to the UK. The family arrived in the Port of London on 18 January from where they travelled up to Scotland. It was the first time the two young children Alfred and Beatrice, had visited Britain. During the trip, Aeneas undertook a short fundraising tour in aid of St Andrew's Colonial Home in Kalimpong, during which he gave lantern shows with spoken commentary. His shows were performed on variety bills and in Church Halls. The photographic slides were projected upon a large screen and depicted life at St Andrew's Colonial Home, views of the Eastern Himalayas, and his experience as a missionary in India. One of Williams’ presentations was given at a variety concert at Elie in Fife held on 23 September at which Major-General Sir George Kenneth Scott-Moncrieff introduced the acts. Williams shared the bill with various vocal and instrumental performers, as well as a young dancer.
Aeneas Francon Williams was elected a Fellow of The Royal Scottish Geographical Society (FRSGS) in 1921.
1922 British Mount Everest Expedition
The Williams family returned to Kalimpong from the U.K. in early 1922. In late March, St Andrew's Colonial Home played host to the first Mount Everest expedition. There had been a reconnaissance expedition the previous year, but the 1922 expedition was the first attempt to conquer the summit. The main team members were General Charles Granville Bruce, Edward Lisle Strutt, George Mallory, George Ingle Finch, Edward Felix Norton, Henry Treise Morshead, Howard Somervell, Arthur Wakefield, and the photographer and movie maker John Noel. Making up the rest of the team was a large group of Tibetan and Nepalese Sherpa's and porters who tendered the pace of donkey's laden with food and equipment. The party travelled along the Teesta Valley alongside the Teesta River by steam train and arrived at Kalimpong Road Station on 26 March from where they trekked the short distance up the hillside to St Andrew's Colonial Home for three days relaxation. There was much excitement among the staff and children at St Andrew's, with football, golf, and evening group sing-alongs taking place in the main school hall, with members of the expedition partaking in the activities. General Bruce had been charged by Sir Robert Baden-Powell to deliver a letter of praise to the Scout troupe at the Homes, which Aeneas enthusiastically ran. The scene at the school was described next day in a letter from the Honorary Superintendent to Sir Robert Baden-Powell:- ‘We had a great day at the Homes yesterday with General Bruce and his companions. We haven’t had a meeting like it since Lady Baden Powell and you were here. The girls and boys were tense with enthusiasm and joy and yelled themselves hoarse. You can picture the scene with the whole Everest party on the School Hall Platform in front of the Roll of Honour, and you can understand the electric conditions for those who daily gaze Kangchenjunga. You, too, know how your old chum (General Bruce) of boyhood and in Army Scouting – so big and yet so genial and gentle – would hold the children spellbound when he – the embodiment of 'highest' endeavour – read your message to them, first in English and then in a Gurkha translation to the contingent of local Himalayan Scouts from the Mission Training School. Mr. Williams (Aeneas) promptly seized the manuscript to hang it up in the Pickford Scout Den beside your drawing of Jack Cornwell and your own signed photograph!’ The following day, the expedition party split in two, with one group staying behind to await delivery of the oxygen canisters, and the other, with General Bruce and the Sherpa's leaving for base camp.