Phillip Williams 1926-2024

The name of Phillip Williams is likely to be familiar to only a handful of current members of the British Psychological Society. Nevertheless, his death, at the age of 97, prompts the following account of a career which embraced significant moments in the development of psychology in the second half of the 20^th century. In compiling it, I have drawn on a lengthy reminiscence – personal and professional – that he wrote in 2013 for the benefit of his family.

Phillip was born in Pontypridd, South Wales in 1926. His parents were schoolteachers. He left the Valleys, aged 13, when his mother took a teaching job in Berkshire. He gained a scholarship to the Leys School, Cambridge, followed by a chemistry degree from Cambridge University.

After two years working as a ferrous analyst in a company building jet engines he decided to train as a teacher, in response to the national post-war shortage. In 1948 at the Institute of Education in London, one of his tutors was P. E. Vernon, and it was during that year that the seeds of his interest in psychology were sown. He enrolled on a course at Birkbeck College, studying in the evenings while teaching chemistry in a London school during the day. A Birkbeck contemporary was Halla Beloff, who gained one of the two 'rationed' firsts; next in the line, Phillip had to settle for a 2i!

With teaching experience and a psychology degree under his belt, he joined the postgraduate course at the Tavistock Clinic, with employment as an educational psychologist in prospect. In 1953 he took up a post in Southampton. In his memoir he reflects that, at that time, there were fewer than a hundred Ed Psychs in England and Wales. Not owning a car, he would travel to and from schools by bus.

In 1958 a job opportunity arose in his native Wales and he moved to Swansea, where one attraction was involvement in the establishment of a Schools Psychological Service. He was also active in the English Division of Professional Psychologists, becoming the secretary for a spell, and working alongside movers and shakers such as Jack Wright, Chief Educational Psychologist in Portsmouth. A significant issue at that time was whether the Division should divide into two, as the constituent professions – educational and clinical – grew in numbers and significance.

In 1961, his accumulated experience led to a lectureship at University College, Swansea, where he was instrumental in setting up a four-year training course for educational psychologists, with the middle two years as supervised teaching experience. 

Following time in the USA looking at Headstart initiatives, he was centrally involved in constructing a successful £100k bid to the Schools Council to develop a Compensatory Education programme, which he co-directed with his Swansea colleague, Maurice Chazan.    

Phillip's standing in the field led to an invitation to join a BPS working party, chaired by Prof. Arthur Summerfield, with the goal of improving the recruitment and training of educational psychologists.  The recommendations of the Summerfield Report (1968) generated much debate within the profession, but one widely approved outcome was a growth in the number of EPs, from 440 in 1967 to 640 by 1972. During this time, in 1966, he was elected a Fellow of the BPS.

In 1970 Phillip was appointed to the first chair in the Psychology of Education at the recently launched Open University, a job he subsequently described as 'the high spot of my career'. In its early years the OU attracted large numbers of schoolteachers, keen to upgrade to a degree, with the attendant increased salary. Selected education courses, including psychology, came with additional credits, so thousands in the profession benefited from the modules designed and implemented under Phillip's leadership. During his time at the OU he was invited to join the committee, chaired by Mary Warnock, enquiring into the provision of special education in England and Wales. One recommendation of the subsequent influential report (1979) led to the OU course 'Special Educational Needs', which was studied at a distance, by thousands of teachers in the 1980s and '90s.

After a term as Dean of the Faculty of Educational Studies, Phillip was drawn back to Wales in 1979 – to a chair at University College, Bangor. He retired from there in 1983.

Phillip's lifelong passion for hill-walking began in Scotland, where the Leys School was evacuated during World War 2.  He co-founded the graduate branch of the University of London Mountaineering Club (the GLUMs), attending events and dinners well into his older years. He celebrated his 80^th birthday by climbing Yr Wyddfa (formerly Snowdon) in the company of his family. He also played rugby as a young man, and as a proud Welsh-speaking Welshman, followed the national team, enthusiastically, well into his 90s.

Post-retirement, Phillip developed his interest in creative writing, adding to his academic publications two novels, a book on grandparenting and, under the pen-name Huw Watkins, a practical guide to living with someone who has had a stroke, drawing on the experience of his wife, Glenys. He also bequeathed his reminiscences of a long and full life from which so many have benefited, directly and indirectly. Former colleagues remember him as unflappable, supportive and warm – a truly lovely man.

Peter Barnes
(former Director of the Centre for Childhood, Development and Learning, The Open University)