A TOWN has honoured a hero who won the VC during the landings by British, Australian and New Zealand troops on V Beach in the Dardanelles on April 25 1915 – commemorated afterwards as Anzac Day in the Antipodes.
According to his citation Chepstow son Able Seaman Williams noticed that the pontoons of lighters troops were using to reach shore from his ship, the SS River Clyde, were starting to break up and drift apart.
Hundreds risked drownings but AS Williams, together with a Naval officer, plunged into the water and held the pontoon in place while the soldiers disembarked under extreme fire.
AS Williams was eventually hit but carried on in the water holding the pontoon together for another hour before another shot killed him.
"His was the only Victoria Cross in Wales," said spokesman for Chepstow Royal Navy Institute Ben Benjamin.
He was proud of the man's courageous act which was depicted in a large oil painting in St Mary's Church, Chepstow.
"The canon in the town by the cenotaph is from a German U-boat and was presented to the town by King George V in his honour."
Details of the role of AS Williams in the landings are displayed in Chepstow Museum and he has two nieces still living in the area who both attended on Friday.
Lydney Sea Cadets were present at Friday's Anzac Day ceremony, which was also attended by the town's civic figures and representatives of naval organisations and the RBL. The Rev John Holder held the service and the bugler was John Squibbs.
"In fact, by the time he was involved in this action – he would have been in his 40s – AS Williams had served his time and had reenlisted in the Royal Fleet Reserve. He hadn't needed to be there at all," said Mr Benjamin.