MattOwensRees writer on Thai culture and lifestyle
11 min read
My Memories of a Welsh Godfather
Johnny and I only learnt of this complex story after his parents died
My first contact with a Mafia boss was when I was in my Welsh primary school and just 8 years old. At that time, I knew nothing about mafias or how the world operated. I knew nothing of politics, corruption and the real ways of the world.
My best friend in school was Johnny Illsley. He was one year younger than me but he had been moved up to my class because the family was so influential in the community.
St Brides Major primary school. 3 classrooms were shared among the 5 different year groups (credit St Brides Major history group)
Johnny’s family lived in a large house in the coastal village of Ogmore-by-Sea in Wales and we were playing in the gardens. We ran up to meet his grand-dad on his return from his office in Pencoed, South Wales, from which he ran his many businesses. Neither of us knew at the time that his grand-dad was the Mafia godfather, J.O.Williams. A rich and very powerful businessman with international and government connections dating back to the 1930s.
The Godfather’s Family Home
J.O.’s large house and land were entered through the long gate on the left. One of their many cars is parked opposite
Sunset over the Bristol Channel as viewed from The Cottage, the Welsh Godfather’s house. The distance between the family home and the sea edge was about 700 metres. J.O.owned the entire land. Johnny and I were always driven by car when we wanted to swim in the sea.
The family background
J.O. was born on 28 March 1886 and died on 6 July 1963 aged 77. His wife, Ethel Kate Williams (née Cobb) died on 20 March 1956 aged 69.
Although J.O. and his family were well respected locally, no-one knew much about the family members. The “respect” was at a distance. There was an aura around them, particularly “J.O.”. You never spoke first. You instinctively “knew your place”. They were generous to the local community without getting overly involved. You always felt there was a “barrier” between you and the family, as if they lived on a different plane from non-members of the family in the community. It wasn’t an unpleasant barrier but it certainly existed.
Doreen Williams with her friend Bunty James on the ice in Newfoundland (credit Wikipedia Commons)
J.O.’s daughter, Katie Doreen Williams, married “Lofty” Illsley and their only son Johnny was born in May 1949. My childhood friend was just 10 months younger than me.
The family were, and remain, understandably secretive about its past. That is true of many families whether mafia or not. The tendency is for later generations to use their wealth, in whatever way it was obtained originally, for charitable donations within their community. And those donations are usually very generous.
How did the Welsh Godfather become so wealthy and powerful
To appreciate that this was a mafia family, we need to look at how J.O. grew his successful businesses and to see how his actions and strategies were, in truth, those of a mafia family. We still do not know all the details of how his family became so wealthy and powerful. Despite some archive material being released there are still unanswered questions. They are likely never to be answered. In many families, mafia and otherwise, the veil of secrecy is never lifted.
The UK and Newfoundland governments are, even today, tight-lipped about certain events about the Godfather’s activities. Some documents have been released under Freedom of Information requests, some have not. You can check for yourselves. Since the story is complex, we need to pay close attention to how the business started, how and why J.O.’s plans started to go wrong, and how and why he, in the end, won the day.
Williams’ affairs in Newfoundland were hushed-up. In the lead up to the Second World War, a climate of trust in our political leaders was vital and good for morale. The last thing the United Kingdom and Newfoundland, its steadfast ally, wanted was to be distracted from the war effort. They regarded what J.O. was doing as a relatively trifling business dispute.
I suspect that J.O. often reminded them how much they themselves were gaining from his activities. He would have reminded them of their own involvement in his business dealings. He was out-smarting them at every juncture. What set J.O. apart from others was that he countered the criticisms being made against him at the time by playing them at their own game. And he played by his rules when he found current laws were not in the family’s interests.
There was never any direct retaliation. People did not “push” J.O.Williams. He was very much his own man, rarely if ever swayed by the wishes of others. He was respected and, in that sense, feared. There was an aura about him which stopped any suggestion of questioning his judgment.
We can see how J.O. manipulated politicians in the UK and Newfoundland. He sought friends and influential contacts and avoided making enemies whenever he could. J.O. wanted people on his side. We see how politicians had difficulty in dealing with or controlling him. They claimed the cover-ups were in the public interest. But, was it not also in their interests to construct a cover-up?
J.O. had a sharp business-like and analytical mind and a gift for clear thinking. He did things his way. He did not suffer fools gladly. He outclassed most people with whom he came into contact.
In the early hours of 3 February 1940, J.O.’s son, Eric Arthur Williams, his daughter-in-law (Olga d’Anitoff Williams), and their daughter (Erica d’Anitoff Williams) died in a house fire in Port Hope Simpson. The cause of their deaths was never fully established. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Serious Crimes Unit opened their investigations as late as August 2002, 39 years after J.O.’s death. It was always suspected that the fire and the deaths resulted from the grievances that J.O.’s employees had over his treatment of them. Correspondence confirming this is in the UK National Archives. No reports on the deaths have ever been found. No medical report from the doctor who apparently attended to Olga at the scene of the three deaths has been found. No death certificates have ever been found.
It may well be that my friend Johnny Illsley had access to the family’s papers and photos (which would have thrown throw some light on this) only long after J.O.’s death.
J.O. Williams had directed that the original tombstone with his daughter-in-law’s name on it be removed. He had a new stone shipped from South Wales many years later. After the deaths he forbade any talk of his daughter-in-law. She was the grand-daughter of a Russian count and, there are letters in the UK national archives stating he considered her to be of poor character. The fact that the UK government collected so much information on Williams shows how much they were scared of him.
I mentioned secrecy and it persists to this very day. The word used by the mafia is Omertà, the term describing the Southern Italian code of honour and code of silence that places importance on silence and non-cooperation in the face of questioning by authorities, law enforcement officers and outsiders. Those same people were turning blind eyes. They also did not want to rock the boat and draw attention to the complicity of their own governments.
It was only much later that I pieced together enough facts from my childhood contact with the family that I realised that this was a traditional mafia family. They were not considered gangsters or criminals. They just operated and lived their lives in a different way from the rest of us. We know, for example, that J.O. erased Olga Williams from the family history books.
For more detail, you may choose to read “A Welsh Godfather”. I go into some depth on this complex story of 27 pages, just over 10,000 words.
The late Eric Williams on the right (credit Llewelyn Pritchard)
Who was “Uncle John”
But what of the “other son” who worked with J.O. in his Welsh company operations and lived in The Cottage, Ogmore-by-Sea. Always referred to as “Uncle John” by childhood friend John Illsley and myself, he bears a strong resemblance to Eric, the son who died in the fire in his home in 1940.
Remember, I spent all my primary school years in close contact with this family.
If ever there was a misnomer for a house, it is for “The Cottage”. It was the largest house in Ogmore-by-Sea. J.O. and Uncle John had the entire upper floor while J.O.’s daughter, Doreen, and her husband, “Lofty” Illsley, lived on the ground floor of the house. Her lifelong friend was Bunty James but I never met her.
If you google the address, The Cottage, Ogmore-by-Sea, you will see a rear view of the house from the main road. The house was much larger than it appears. In the 1960s there were uninterrupted views from the front of the house, over their extensive gardens and land, to the Bristol Channel.
The land between the house and the coast was owned by the J.O.Williams family but rented out to a local farmer. However, they retained right of access. J.O.’s son-in-law, “Lofty” Illsley installed a small changing facility near the boundary wall for their use when they wanted to bathe in the sea. They would drive down from the house quite often in the summer months. It was too far to walk. We would then cross the wall and within two minutes we would be playing on the sand or bathing. Johnny and I had many happy hours there.
J.O. did allow one house, but only one, to be built on his land before most of it was sold off, much later, to build an extensive housing development, (Marine Walk, Marine Drive etc.).
It was the house of “Boss” Williams, the local headmaster (and not a relative). It was set well back from the J.O. residence. At the same time, Johnny Illsley was moved up a class.
Some Moments I Can Remember
Johnny and I being taken to a local rugby game by his grand-dad. While J.O. parked his Armstrong Siddeley car, we dutifully queued up for tickets to the field. He called us over and bypassed the queue. Johnny’s granddad just said “J.O.Williams, J.O.Williams” as we all walked through the turnstiles unchallenged.
The strongest rugby side in Wales provided many international star players. (credit Bridgend Rugby club archives)
After watching the game, we all went into the directors’ box for lunch.
“I’ve got a banger. I’ve got a banger.”
At a bonfire night party, Uncle John running through the crowd with a lighted firework in his hand, throwing it only seconds before it went off. Johnny and I were scared stiff. The J.O. family often invited friends and locals to festivities such as this. The family did not make close friends outside their circle but were happy to put on events to which villagers were warmly welcomed and made to feel at ease.
One of the Lewes bonfire societies celebrating Guy Fawkes night. Typically, 5,000 enjoy the event. The Godfather’s family put on a smaller event for the local community but was still much enjoyed by everyone. (credit Paul Kelly, YouTube)
“I don’t want the fish. We only need chips” Johnny’s parents took Johnny and I for a weekend break in their campervan. “Lofty” Illsley, Johnny’s Dad, went to the local fish and chip shop to get some chips to accompany the fish that Doreen Illsley had prepared. They wouldn’t serve him chips on their own. So he paid for the fish and chips and threw the fish away.
Does this tell us anything about mafia families? I think it does.
The rugby game incident showed J.O.’s supreme confidence and realisation of his powerful godfather position. He commanded and received respect.
Uncle John and the rest of the family showed how a mafia family creates a presence within a community without getting overly involved but coming across in a friendly and positive way. Gaining respect for the family which people knew would help them if they asked.
“Lofty”, by just throwing the fish away showed, in a curious way, a steadfastness and unwavering of purpose. Totally confident in himself. All are mafia traits.
This is how mafias are run in the everyday world. They are businesses like any other. As we see in Mario Puzo’s “The Godfather”, the methods used were sometimes justified in order to keep the family’s reputation and respect intact against what they saw as an unfair society run by a rich establishment that only looked after their own interests.
Conclusion.
In the context of the J.O.Williams family and my personal observations and experiences, I see a mafia as a benevolent dictatorship run essentially as a “family” concern. The violence has been overplayed. The only deaths in this true story were that of three family members of J.O.’s family in the 1940 fire, and they were probably committed by the loggers who had grievances over working conditions. They took the law into their own hands. That in itself is a typical mafia strategy.
J.O. wanted to create a wealthy and powerful family. There is no evidence that he ever used violence. He was, as far as I am aware, not involved in drug smuggling, protection rackets, human trafficking, illegal gambling, boot-legging or the other oft-quoted activities of mafias. It’s not illegal to outwit international governments and make a great deal of money doing so.
Provided that you showed him respect, J.O. would be benevolent towards you and you would be regarded as a member of his extended family. Although he was open to discussion and would listen, his decisions were final. J.O. Williams saw the crookedness and unfairness of much in society. He knew and experienced at first hand the corruption, bias, and self-serving of the political and judicial establishment.
He had a sharp business-like and analytical mind and a gift for clear thinking. He did things his way. J.O. did not suffer fools gladly. He outclassed most people with whom he came into contact.
We think of mafia as a corrupt organised crime family not following the law as we know it. In that sense, mafias are examples of a dysfunctional and broken system. The mafia businesses themselves, of course, have a different view. To them, it is the establishment, the government, which is corrupt and dysfunctional.
(credit Apple books)
As portrayed in film, we are told that they are violent crocked criminals with no redeeming features. We need to view them in a different perspective when reading the narrative of the J.O.Williams family.
