Born on 15th March 1890 at 43 Church Street in Tamworth to Edward and Sarah Anne Williams, Willams was the seventh child of seven children. Williams’ father was a carpenter by trade and was also the caretaker at the McGregor Public Baths that were just a few houses down from their home.

Tom Williams attended Tamworth Board School in Lichfield Street, Tamworth from 1893 to 1902 whereupon an article in the Tamworth Herald on 2nd April 1898 details that Tom was awarded a first for Geography and Proficiency prizes. From 1902 – 1905, Williams attended Birmingham Municipal Technical Day school and then from 1906 – 1910, Birmingham Municipal Engineering School, where he obtained a first in Machine Drawing and Design. It was during this time that Williams served as an apprentice to Henry Clarson who was Tamworth Rural District Council Surveyor with Williams becoming Assistant Highway Surveyor in 1911.

Williams progressed and by 1915 he was the Assistant Borough Surveyor of Nuneaton in addition to teaching evening classes in machine and building construction along with technical drawing.

At the age of 17 Williams joined the Christadelphian church which perhaps was one of the turning points that changed his career path. One of the major beliefs of the Christadelphians is that they do not join the armed forces or the police, nor do they vote or take part in politics.

With World War 1 now in full force, Williams was called up for military service although due to his faith he refused and became a conscientious objector. Williams appealed twice against serving the military although after two unsuccessful appeals, in March 1916 he was then charged with absenteeism and imprisoned. Continuing to appeal and given his skills as an engineer, the courts decreed that Williams was exempt from military service but instead had to undertake work of ‘national importance’.

Part of the work was to work for the Triumph Cycle Company in Coventry given that the Triumph Model H motorcycle was used by the British Army. (Triumph manufacturing over 30,000 of them for military service between 1915 and the end of the war in 1918.) Williams was taken on as Chief Draughtsman and by 1924 was the Chief Designer. During that time he made a number of changes and patented a number of gearbox and suspension designs in addition to working on Triumph's first fully-chaindriven model, the Triumph SD in 1920.

It was during this time that Williams married Ellen Mary Oliver (a fellow Christadelphian) in 1922 and the couple then moved into the Oliver family home at Bro Dawel on the Kettlebrook Road in Tamworth. Williams was also an accomplished musician and having learnt to play the organ at St. Editha's Church, Tamworth. He also studied the organ at Tamworth Parish Church under a Mr. H. Rose. It is said that he was also very fond of the piano with Beethoven and Mendelssohn being his favourite composers. Willams never lost his love for music and went on to be an organist at Lichfield Christadelphian Church for 45 years.

Looking for fresh challenges in his career, Williams left Triumph in 1924 and went to work for Dunford and Elliott (Sheffield) Ltd. Williams played a key role in not only developing Dunelt motorcycles for the company but also a commercial van and pickup. Williams firmly believed that there was a strong future for 3-wheelers and in 1930 left Dunford and Elliott and went to work for the Raleigh Cycle Company in Nottingham.

At Raleigh, Williams was responsible for the design and formation of a motor section which resulted in Raleigh acquiring the rights for the Ivy Karryall van. Essentially a motorcycle-based van with a chain-driven back axle. More importantly as the vehicle was a 3-wheeler under 8cwt unladen, it was classed as a motorcycle and thus paid lower road tax. With Williams in control, the Ivy Karryall was redesigned, refined and improved and became the Raleigh LDV (Light Delivery Van) in 1931.

Williams didn’t stop there and in 1932 produced a Rickshaw version although perhaps the greatest hint of things yet to come was the 3-wheeled Raleigh Safety Seven in 1933 that was billed as a four-seater ‘sports tourer’ and powered by a 742cc engine.

Despite the success of Raleigh’s 3-wheelers, Raleigh themselves were not convinced there was a future for them and decided to close down the Motor Department, something Williams really did not agree upon given the amount of development work that had been poured into these vehicles.

Williams’ next step is well known, in August 1934 he left Raleigh and decided to set up his own business and started to design his own 3-wheeled van, something he was then assisted with in October 1934, when Ewart Thompson also left Raleigh to join him. In a brick shed at the bottom of the garden at Bro Dawel, the pair designed and built the first Reliant that was officially registered as “The Reliant” with Staffordshire Council on 4th January 1935.

Looking for premises to build their new vehicles, Williams purchased and converted a former Midland Red omnibus garage in Two Gates, near Tamworth, into a factory. The first Reliant van was delivered on 3rd June 1935 and shortly afterwards the Reliant Engineering Company (Tamworth) Ltd was incorporated. In the same year, Williams became an Associate Member of the Institution of Automobile Engineers, his status being changed to a full Member in 1944. He was also a member of the Institution of
Mechanical Engineers.

Williams’ personal choice of transport was detailed in April 1938 when he placed an advertisement in the local newspaper to sell his Austin Saloon 18 hp for £125, a car he reported to be in excellent condition.

In September of the same year with World War II on the horizon, Williams volunteered the assistance of his staff to assemble ARP gasmasks and in just one day, by 11pm, his staff had assembled 11,000 gas masks. In total Reliant assembled 13,200 gas masks and it is alleged they all had a Reliant stamp on them although sadly we have never found one to provide evidence of this. During the War, Reliant produced over 1½million components for the war effort.

Williams’ wife died on 2nd November 1940 following a long period of ill-health and Williams continued to live in the Oliver family home at Bro Dawel until 1950, when, following a large expansion at Reliant, Williams had a self-contained flat built above the new office block.

Former Reliant employess have reported that with Williams living on site, there was more than one occasion that if there was a night shift on, Williams would come downstairs in his pyjamas and dressing gown and tell everyone to keep the noise down and work quieter.

Williams dedication to Reliant never wavered and he witnessed numerous innovations as the company grew and saw it grow exponentially from the company in was in the late 1930s. In 1959, Williams appointed Ray Wiggin as his assistant with Wiggin then becoming Managing Director in 1962.

In 1962 Williams sold control of Reliant to Gwent and West of England Enterprises and 22 years after his first wife passed away, remarried to Doris Wynn Price. He then moved out of his self-contained flat at Reliant to Long View in Hopwas, near Tamworth. Sadly, the marriage was short lived as just a couple of years later in 1964 Williams, now aged 73, fell ill whilst working at his desk and was driven home by Ray Wiggin. He was later taken to Burton upon Trent Hospital although died the following day at 5:30pm on 5th March 1964.

Following a private service at his Hopwas home, the funeral was held at the Aldergate Methodist Church in Tamworth on 10th March 1964. The service was attended by many of Reliant’s suppliers,
dealers & customers including Itzhal Shubinsky (Chairman and Managing Director of the Autocar Company, Haifa) who made a 3,000-mile journey from Israel.

Following the service, Williams was buried in the same plot as the Oliver family at Glascote Cemetery just one grave down from his first wife .

In 2000, the old Reliant factories at Two Gates were bulldozed and a housing estate built in its place. The entrance road to the estate commemorates Tom Williams being called “Tom Williams Way” and ensures that future generations never forget the name of Tamworth’s greatest automotive pioneer.

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Article by Elvis Payne reproduced from the Reliant Motor Club Review - No 16 June 2024.