Dates

• Existence: 1880 - 1966

Biography

Walter Nalder Williams was born on 17 August 1880. He was educated at Eastbourne College and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he gained degrees in both classics and law. After graduating, Nalder Williams held lectureships in classics at Selwyn and Girton Colleges, and in law at Trinity College. Williams was appointed a Fellow of Selwyn College in 1913.

In 1914, Nalder Williams became Assistant Secretary of the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES) and was retained throughout the First World War. He was appointed Secretary of UCLES in 1921.

In 1939 Nalder Williams postponed his retirement due to the Second World War. In 1941 he was one of two examination board heads selected to sit on the Secondary Schools Examinations Council’s committee on Curriculum and Examinations in Secondary Schools (also known as the Norwood committee). This committee produced the ‘Norwood Report’ (full title: Curriculum and Examinations in Secondary Schools: Report of the Committee of the Secondary School Examinations Council). The report recommended the replacement of external examinations with teacher assessment and Nalder Williams distanced himself from these findings. Nalder Williams retired in 1945.

Walter Nalder Williams and Evelyn Russell married in 1917. They had three children: Michael (born 1918), Roger (born 1920) and Elizabeth (born 1923).

Walter Nalder Williams died on 12 April 1966.

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