Edward Alexander Williams was born and brought up in the United States.  He came to Australia in 1941 and taught under the late Sir James Darling at Geelong Grammar School.  After WWII, he returned to the United States.

As a member of the Society of Australasian Specialists, Ed was well known to philatelists in America, but he was not so well known in Australia until the publication of Northern Territory: A Postal History 1824-1975, published under the authorship of E Williams and P Collas by the Society of Australasian Specialists in 1977.

Phil Collas died in 1989, but Ed Williams continued his work on the Northern Territory, which resulted in his The Postal History of the Northern Territory, 1824-1988, which was published in 1992, a much enlarged edition of the earlier work.  Ed wrote three Supplements to this book, which were published in Philately from Australia, the first in three issues in 1993, the others in December 1994 and June 1996.

As a member of the Australian States Study Group of the Royal Philatelic Society, London, he has contributed to the Group's newsletter, his comments on such diverse subjects as the Zieher Postcards Illustrating Stamps, South Australian Railway parcel Stamps, Queensland Private Perfins and Forgeries of Australian States Stamps.

Currently he has a manuscript on the South Australian Postage and Revenue Long Stamps, at the proof stage which will be published by the Royal Philatelic Society of Victoria later this year.

[ Source:  APF News, October 1997 ]