'Major General Sir William Williams of Kars', 1853 (c)

Lithograph by Thomas Herbert Maguire, after P C French, published by Published by Paul and Dominic Colnaghi, 13 and 14 Pall Mall East, London, 1856.

In June 1855, Kars, a city in north-eastern Turkey, was besieged by a Russian army of 25,000 men. Demoralised by their defeats at the hands of the Russians, the Turks left the defence of Kars to Brevet Colonel (later General Sir) William Fenwick Williams, Royal Artillery, who was the British commissioner with the Ottoman Army in Anatolia. Through his brilliant organisation, the garrison was able to repulse three major Russian attacks, but eventually cold, famine and an outbreak of cholera forced it to surrender on 26 November 1855. In recognition of their heroism, the defenders were allowed to march out of the city with the honours of war and into captivity.

Williams returned to England after the Crimean War ended. He received a baronetcy and was promoted to the rank of major-general. In 1865 he became Governor of Nova Scotia, his birthplace, and held the post of Governor of Gibraltar from 1870 to 1876. After a period as Constable of the Tower of London, Sir William Fenwick Williams, 1st Baronet of Kars, died in London on the 26 July 1883.