Obituary for Arthur Williams

It is with sadness that we report the recent death of Arthur Williams. Arthur was brought up in North Wales and then went to the University of London where he obtained a brilliant first class honours degree in Physics, followed by a Doctorate when he did research into the electrical conductivity of diamonds. Arthur supplemented his grant by playing rubber bridge for a penny a hundred and made quite a lot of money that way!

After leaving university in 1970 he went to work for ICI at Runcorn as a research physicist, and during that time he joined the Deva Bridge Club where he met a young lady called Diana Warburton (who subsequently became his wife). I can remember Diana telling me that Arthur thought that his luck was in after a few weeks when Diana asked him to go away for the weekend. Except when explained fully it was to accompany her and her parents to the Isle of Man Congress!

In 1982 he, as he put it himself, applied for a "rumour" that a post was to be advertised at the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment at Malvern, and Diana and he moved to Malvern that year and Diana (who was a tax inspector) moved her post to Evesham. Arthur stayed at RSRE (later QinetiQ) until his formal retirement in 2005 dealing with patents and intellectual property law, but he stayed on part-time as an independent contractor until last year. Diana was diagnosed with cancer in 2005 and subsequently passed away in 2007. Arthur was never quite the same again as some of the light went out of his life, but he always put a cheery outlook on life.

Arthur and Diana were very keen bridge players. They met whilst playing bridge and formed a very good partnership but finally decided to stop playing with one another when they had just won the Surrey Championship Pairs competition (a premier event) but still ended up having a massive argument in the car on the way home. When Diana and Arthur moved to Malvern they first played bridge at Cheltenham with a lot of success and then in Worcestershire. Arthur had a long partnership playing with Simon Harrison and they succeeded where no other Worcestershire players had done so in winning the main English National Pairs competition, the Corwen trophy. Arthur also played with Paul Hammond and then for the last 15 years or so with myself. During this time he won all of the major honours in Worcestershire many times over. Although Arthur and Diana stopped playing with each other as partners they did like to be in the same team. Diana also appeared to have an inbuilt radar for Arthur's voice and she was forever telling him to talk more quietly so much that it became a joke.

So what was Arthur like to play with? He was an excellent partner and was always very generous and helpful. He was an absolute gentleman at the table and was very patient with people who were less able than himself. I am proud that I played with Arthur and he improved my bridge no end so much that it was like having your own personal tutor. That said he did not criticise and only offered advice when asked by myself or others and he never made you feel bad when you hadn't played well. He was a bit forgetful in his later years so you never knew whether he would turn up on the right night or at the right time - that's when he decided to get a whiteboard by his front door and write his diary commitments on it.

He was an excellent teammate and was very good for morale. It's very dispiriting to travel home having lost a match very closely but Arthur had a way of making us feel better about it and could lift one's spirits. Although we did discuss bridge hands on the way home from events more often than not we talked about other things as well. Arthur had a massive intellect and a wealth of knowledge together with the rare gift of explaining complicated things. I can remember discussing 18th century warships and the management of sail, how tungsten light bulbs worked and why the sky is blue amongst other things!

Arthur was very keen on New World wines, particularly red and we shared some decent bottles to celebrate our success. He was good at picking you up when feeling down and became a more than just a bridge partner to me but a true friend. I have had my ups and downs and he was always there to support me with a cheery word and a hug if necessary.

Arthur suffered a sudden and severe stroke on the 10th of May, and despite the doctors saying that he would not survive the critical first 48 hours, he did survive and subsequently improved, but he later deteriorated and passed away on the 17th May. One cannot say better than that………..

Joyce Skelton