AustLit

Vernon Williams moved from Queensland to Victoria at an early age with his parents. He was educated at Caulfield Grammar School and the University of Melbourne. Williams became a secondary school teacher and subsequently a draughtsman in the Commonwealth Lands and Survey Department. He transferred to Canberra in 1929 and died in 1931. Williams contributed to Australian magazines; both he and his wife, Elvie Williams (q.v.), were members of the Australian Literature Society.

Bernard Cronin describes Williams as a 'sensitive, shy, lovable fellow' who 'took infinite pains with his writing. He had an almost passionate concern to recover from the past, before it was too late, the colour and adventure of our early Australian history. He was for ever searching, for ever recording. He loved adventure and the things that make for adventure, great lusty Odysseys thick with the spray of the salt seas.'

(Source: Bernard Cronin 'Vernon Williams: An Appreciation', All About Books 3.8 (14 August 1931): 168); E. Morris Miller Australian Literature From Its Beginnings to 1935 (1940): 747).