Arthur Williams (Samoan politician)

Born in Australia, as a teenager Williams ran away to Fiji, where he worked as a chauffeur for the government.^[1] In 1915 he visited Western Samoa and decided to remain in the territory permanently.^[1] He subsequently set up a plumbing and tinsmith business in 1917,^[2][3][4] and married Telesia Tuala in July 1919.^[5] He was a freemason and a founding member of the Calliope masonic lodge, as well as being an officer in the Grand Lodge of New Zealand.^[2]

When a partially-elected Legislative Council was established, Williams contested the first elections in 1924, and was one of three people elected to the council.^[6] Like the other two, Olaf Frederick Nelson and George Westbrook, he was a member of the anti-colonial Mau movement.^[7] He was subsequently re-elected in the 1926 elections.^[8] However, in the 1929 elections he finished last out of four candidates and lost his seat.^[9] He ran unsuccessfully again in the 1941 elections.^[10]

He died at Apia Government Hospital on 3 October 1953.^[2]