Sir William Fenwick Williams, 1st Baronet of Kars was a Nova Scotian and renowned military leader for the British during the Victorian era. Williams is remembered for his gallant defence of the town of Kars during the Crimean War. He with other British officers inspired the poorly equipped Turkish soldiers to repel Russian attacks by General Murav’ev on the besieged town for three months causing 6,000 Russian casualties. They were forced to surrender due to starvation, disease and shortage of ammunition. However, they surrendered on their own terms, with the officers being allowed to retain their swords. Williams was imprisoned at Ryazan but he was treated very well and released at the end of the Crimean War in 1856. Before returning home he was introduced to Czar Alexander II. Many other honours were bestowed upon Williams and it was particularly fitting that in 1865–7, he was appointed the first Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, where he had been born at the turn of the 19th century.
Williams was educated at the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich. He entered the Royal Artillery as second lieutenant in 1825. His services were lent to Turkey in 1841, and he was employed as a captain in the arsenal at Constantinople. He was British commissioner in the conferences preceding the treaty of Erzurum in 1847, and again in the settlement of the Ottoman-Iranian boundary in 1848. He was appointed CB in 1852.
Crimean War
Promoted colonel, he was British commissioner with the Turkish army in Anatolia in the Crimean War of 1854–56, and, having been made a pasha with the degree of ferik, he commanded the Turkish troops at the defence of the town of Kars during the Crimean War. He with other British officers inspired the poorly equipped Turkish soldiers to repel Russian attacks by General Murav’ev on the besieged town for three months causing 6,000 Russian casualties. They were forced to surrender due to starvation, disease and shortage of ammunition. However, they surrendered on their own terms, with the officers being allowed to retain their swords. Williams was imprisoned at Ryazan but he was treated very well and released at the end of the Crimean War in 1856. Before returning home he was introduced to Czar Alexander II. Williams had put up such an honourable defence of the city that Murav’ev stated: "General Williams, you have made yourself a name in history, and posterity will stand amazed at the endurance, courage and the discipline which the siege has called forth in the remains of the army." A baronetcy with pension for life, the KCB, the grand cross of the Legion of Honour and of the Order of the Medjidie, the freedom of the City of London with a sword of honour, and the honorary degree of DCL of Oxford University, were the distinctions conferred upon him. Sword Sir William William's sword, University of King's College, Library, Halifax, Nova Scotia Promoted major-general in November 1855 on his return from captivity in Russia, he held the Woolwich command, and represented the borough of Calne in parliament from 1856 to 1859. In the lead up to the American Civil War, from 1859 to 1864, he held the position of Commander-in-Chief, North America, and was responsible for preparations for war with the United States in the case that relations broke down. The most severe strain in relations occurring during the Trent Affair. He was promoted to lieutenant-general and appointed colonel-commandant Royal Artillery in 1864.
He died in a hotel in Pall Mall on 26 July 1883 and he was buried in Brompton Cemetery. The portrait by William Gush was painted for the Parliament House, Halifax, Nova Scotia and hangs to this day in Province House, Halifax.
