Arthur Williams
(February 28, 1925 – ????)
Arthur F. Williams was a British fan, fanartist and fanzine editor who first encountered fandom in February 1941. He was a member of the British Fantasy Society (BFS) and the Cosmos Club. He was active until at least 1944, but possibly no later.
A profile piece in Futurian War Digest #30 (August 1943) described him as:
A long lanky lad (6 ft in sox) with brown hair, blue eyes, fair complexion, medium build, and all the trimmings. Didn't come across magazine sf till after the war broke out, but have since made up for lost time. First entered fandom in Feb 1941, and have had the good fortune to meet over forty well-known fans since then. Had a habit of grinning until Staghurst[1] converted me to Socialism (??) and now only grin spasmodically.
Williams's first fanzine was the hand-lettered The Science Fantasy Fan. That was suspended when he was hospitalised in July 1941 although he returned in October with The Unique Magazine. He contributed at least a dozen covers to Futurian War Digest and artwork to Harry Turner's Zenith (April 1941) as well as to his own fanzines, often copies of professional magazine pieces. He attended the Bombcon gathering in 1941 and joined the British Fantasy Society in late 1942 (member #58, resigning for unspecified reasons in March 1944). He also helped organise the Midvention in April 1943 and joined the Cosmos Club around mid-1943.
In May 1943 he was rumoured, according to Futurian War Digest, to have been secretly married for the last six months to Joyce Fairbairn. This rumour was likely false. He did join the RAF in that month and was reported as medically discharged in December. In April 1944 he was reported to joining the Merchant Navy[2] but he did attended the 1944 Eastercon and John Millard, recalling the convention in Checkpoint #45 in 1973, referred to him as 'The Camberwell Miracle'. In October 1944, he was reported to be living in Liverpool and working on an anthology of fan poetry with Ron Holmes.
There are references to an Arthur Williams attending the 1949 Eastercon but whether it was this Arthur Williams or somebody else isn't clear.
- Fantasy Post [1941] (with Ken Bulmer)
- The Science Fantasy Fan [1941]
- Trends [1944] (a number of single-copy issues passed between British fans, with one generally circulated issue in May 1944)
- The Unique Magazine [1941-44]
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- ↑ 'Staghurst' is probably a typo for 'Snaghurst,' a nickname of fan R. G. Medhurst.
- ↑ Cosmic Cuts v2#7 (April 1944).
| Person | 1925—???? |
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