The Anzac hero who touched hearts at Lord’s and brought tears to the eye of a great
This is the story of Graham Williams, the South Australian fast bowler who survived World War II then brought the Lord’s crowd to their feet — and Aussie great Keith Miller to tears.
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Ryan Harris felt the hairs stand up on the back of his neck as he saluted the greatest fast bowler you have never heard of.
His name was Graham Williams, a humble wool classer from Adelaide who played 26 first class games. No Tests.
Williams was not great in a Glenn McGrath, Wasim Akram sense, but for producing one of the sweetest and most emotional moments in Australian cricket history.
The South Australian fast bowler was a last-minute inclusion in an Australian cricket team hastily compiled for the Victory Tests against England to celebrate the end of the Second World War in 1945.
He was so thin people were worried about him simply falling over at the crease for only two weeks earlier he had been released from a German prisoner of war camp where he spent four years on starvation rations after being shot down in the Middle East and crash-landing about 70 miles behind enemy lines.
He had lost 31kgs and weighed around 50kgs and was greyhound thin. But he played.
When he walked to the crease to bat at No. 9 at Lord’s something strange happened. Hours before he batted, a graphic profile of Williams appeared in The Times of London and Lord’s fans were so touched by it they applauded him all the way to the wicket.
Iconic all-rounder Keith Miller said the ovation was his most memorable moment in cricket. Of the thousands of photos taken of Miller, featuring him with everyone from royalty to the riff raff, the only one he kept on show in his home in Sydney before he died was the one you see in this story which has Williams partially obscured on the far left.
“I can feel the hairs standing up on the back of my neck just talking about it,’’ said fellow South Australian Harris, a devout digger fan who was preparing to take his son Carter to his first Anzac Day service.
“It was amazing just the fact he (Williams) was out there but then to get that ovation. It’s a phenomenal story.
“Whenever I see something about our Diggers – particularly our cricket Diggers – it just catches my attention. Just the thought of him bowling at around 50kgs. Athletes are not even allowed to get that small these days. It’s a herculean effort. Just an amazing story.’’
Miller, the not-out batsman when Williams walked out to make a rousing 57-ball 53, rated the ovation “the most touching thing I have ever seen or heard.’’
“It was almost orchestral in its sound and feeling. Whenever I think of it, tears still come to my eyes,” Miller once told Richie Benaud.
During his time as prisoner of war Williams regularly communicated to the Red Cross to help other prisoners, learned braille so he could teach it to blind prisoners and taught agriculture and touch typing.
After the war, Williams quietly returned to Adelaide and his job as a wool classer and died at age 67, one of many utterly heroic Anzacs who never got the publicity they deserved.
Originally published as The Anzac hero who touched hearts at Lord’s and brought tears to the eye of a great
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