Francis-Williams was born 10 March 1903. In 1926 he married Jessie Hopkin and they had one son and one daughter. He died 5 June 1970. He spent his early career serving on the staff of various newspapers. Then during 1936-1940 he was Editor of the Daily Herald. In 1941 he published his first book "War by Revolution" and later published a further twelve books. He was Controller of News and Censorship at the Ministry of Information, 1941-1945. After the war (1945-1947) he became Adviser on Public Relations to the Prime Minister and then a Governor of BBC 1951-1952. He was later Regents' Professor, University of California, Berkeley (1961), a member of the Monopolies Commission on Newspaper Mergers (1966-1970) and Kemper Knapp Visiting Professor of the University of Wisconsin (1967).