Francis McWilliams was born on 8 February 1926,[4][5] in a tenement house in Portobello, Edinburgh,[1] and educated at Holy Cross Academy in Leith.[1] While at Holy Cross, he and a fellow student, the artist Eduardo Paolozzi, were thrown out of class for misbehaviour.[1] McWilliams was quoted as saying to the writer Michael Glackin: "The odds that the teacher was throwing a future world-renowned artist out of her class were probably long, but the odds on her throwing two future knights longer still."[1]
McWilliams received a scholarship to attend the University of Edinburgh to study civil engineering when he was 16 years old.[3] After graduating in 1945, he worked in the office of Edinburgh's City Engineer and then as a civil and structural engineer in other authorities. In 1953, he relocated to British Malaysia with his wife, Wyn, and their first child. They stayed for almost a quarter century. He worked for the Melaka municipal council[2] and had his own consulting engineering practice there.[3] While in Malaysia, he was the key engineer behind the civic planning for the town of Petaling Jaya in 1954.[2] In March 1973, the sultan Salahuddin of Selangor awarded him the honour Datuk Diraja Selangor.[2] He returned to the UK in 1976 and worked in the city of London, being appointed 665th Lord Mayor in 1992.[2] He was later appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) by Queen Elizabeth II.[2]
In 2015, he was disqualified from driving for 12 months, after being caught over the drink-driving limit outside the Bank of England at 2:30am in his 2.7-litre Jaguar XF. He was 89 at the time.[6]
McWilliams died on 31 August 2022, at the age of 96.[2] He is survived by his wife and two sons, one of whom is the economic consultant Douglas McWilliams.[4][7]
