Other Davids Williams

Despite information to the contrary all over this blog, my name is David Williams. I was forced to change it because there was already a David Williams in Equity. That is a story for another day.

As you might imagine it is a very common name in Wales, but they also come from parts of the world as far flung as Trinidad, Australia, Canada, the West Indies, New Zealand and there are 20,789 in the USA alone. The minimal research I have done reveals that David Williamses come from all walks of life: musicians, politicians, sportsmen, photographers, academics, journalists, etc.

The musicians are as varied as an Aboriginal musician and artist, the late lead singer of rock band Drowning Pool, an incredibly prolific session guitarist and bassists for bands as different as The Dear & Departed, Son of Dork and various Jazz musicians.

Among the politicians is a 3rd Baronet MP for Breconshire from 1697 to 1698 and 1705 to 1721, the founder of the Royal Literary Fund in 1788, the Governor of South Carolina from 1814 to 1816, the Liberal Member of Parliament for Merioneth from 1868 to 1870, the Labour Member of Parliament for Swansea East 1922 to 1940 and the President of the Kentucky Senate, USA.

The sportsmen who bear the name play ice hockey, football, American football, cricket & rugby league.

Other David Williams include an astronaut, a geologist, a historian, a industrialist, a judge, a Methodist minister, a philosopher, a professor of law, a director, a producer, an Ojibway aboriginal painter, the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University from 1856 to 1858, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge from 1989 to 1996, one of the soldiers who captured British spy John Andre in the American Revolutionary War, the Director General of the British National Space Centre, the President of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the Second Sea Lord from 1974 to 1977, the inventor of the floating chamber used on firearms and the screenwriter of four episodes of Captain Scarlet.

A special mention for the Little Britain star David Walliams who was also born David Williams, but encountered the same problem with names in Equity that I did.

(below clockwise from top left: Dafydd Williams, astronaut; David Williams, firearms inventor; David Williams, professional poker player; David Williams, footballer; David Williams, rugby league player known as 'Beardo'; Neal McDonough as David Williams in Desperate Housewives; David Williams, known professionally as David Walliams; Dave Williams, lead singer of Drowning Pool; David Williams, Indigenous Australian musician & David Williams, mathematician)