Chris Williams

Chris Williams may have been the brakeman in both the GB 2- and 4-men bob second crews at the 1956 Cortina Winter Olympics, but it was as a rugby prop forward that he really made his name in the sporting world.

Williams went to Wycliffe College in Gloucestershire before going on to do his National Service for two years. He then went to Downing College, Cambridge, in to study law in 1948. Williams played rugby and boxed in the Army and continued with his rugby at Cambridge, winning a Blue in 1950. He also played tennis and was captain of the university team for two years. He got his sporting inspiration from two uncles who were rugby internationals before World War I, and his father who played tennis at Wimbledon into his 50th year.

Chris Williams was a one-club player, spending his entire rugby career at Rosslyn Park RUFC and was club captain in the 1958/59 season. Shortly before his death in 2012 Rosslyn Park rewarded him with an honorary life membership.

By profession, Williams ran a London advertising consultancy and also had a career as a supporting actor, appearing in many films.

Williams was manager of the British Bob team at the 1972 Sapporo Winter Olympics, and was for many years on the committee of the British Bobsleigh Association. At the time of the 1956 Winter Olympics, the London Weekly Dispatch labelled Williams as the “slipped disc hero” because he competed with his back strapped up after slipping a disc … playing table tennis!