Tony was Oxford Lord Mayor 40 years ago, 1982-83. This piece brings back to life an episode where he had the chance to involve his father in this civil office, by asking him to sing. The piece was published in the Oxford Mail with a family picture on December 19, 2022
The Oxford tradition of a Christmas carol concert hosted by the Lord Mayor in the Town Hall dates back many years.
The event 40 years ago was memorable as it came at the end of a turbulent year and featured a Lord Mayor who couldn’t sing.
He asked his dad and his daughter for help.
The Lord Mayor was the Rev Tony Williamson, a Labour councillor who had the unusual job as ‘worker priest’ in the Pressed Steel car plant in Cowley (now part of BMW’s Mini factory).
By 1982, when he became Lord Mayor, Mr Williamson had been driving a forklift truck in Pressed Steel for more than 20 years.
He was also a trade union leader there.
He was ordained in the Church of England, but chose this work over being a parish priest.
His year as Lord Mayor coincided with dramatic national and international events. At home, political tensions were running high. Unemployment had risen to more than three million for the first time since the 1930s, triggering national protests.
Internationally, the Falklands war, fought against Argentina in spring 1982, was still a fresh memory.
Several British sailors killed came from Oxfordshire.
The IRA, fighting for a united Ireland, stepped up attacks on British soil.
Bomb scares in Oxford were common - just a few days before the carol concert, Cornmarket Street was shut by such a scare.
Against this backdrop, the carol concert perhaps came as light relief. As usual, organisers expected the Lord Mayor to perform the part of the King when it came to singing Good King Wenceslas.
However, Mr Williamson said he couldn’t sing so he asked his father, the Rev Joseph Williamson, to step in. He asked his 22-year-old daughter, Ruth, to sing the part of the page.
Joseph Williamson, known as Father Joe, had a good voice. He had sung as a child, growing up in poverty in east London, entering the church choir and starting his path to priesthood.
He sang decades later as a priest, back in east London, campaigning on social justice issues, a role that led to his character featuring in the TV drama ‘Call the Midwife’.
But he was now 87.
He was keen to sing, but frail. Would his health hold up? He was sick on the morning of the concert, but was determined to perform.
Tony Williamson’s wife, Barbara, kept a diary of her year as Lady Mayoress. She noted: “When we reached Good King Wenceslas, Joe astonished everyone by the volume of his singing!”
The oldest King for many years at the Lord Mayor’s carols had sung his part.
•My thanks to Tony Williamson’s son, Hugh, for this article.
He is now writing a memoir about his father.