Born in Liverpool, his studies were in Paris and Antwerp under Verlat. Williams worked across France and in Africa and Italy winning many international medals and awards. He specialised in coastal painting, in particular harbours and estuaries.

The artist first arrived in St Ives in about 1890; returned many times but never settled there. He worked the Cornish and Devon coastline in a nomadic manner throughout his life. Greatly influenced by Impressionists, he produced bright and colourful scenes which gave a glow of the Mediterranean.

He contributed two series of six self-illustrated articles to The Artist on 'Pastel Art' (1932) and 'Harbour and Fishing Subjects' (1935). Each included colour and black & white plates of the artist's work. He was himself the subject in `Famous Artists', No 8 in May 1932, when his Twilight St Ives was featured. In December of 1932, The Artist reported that Williams had just returned to London from spending eleven weeks in Mousehole painting from a picture window overlooking the harbour.