Alexander Williams

Who was Alexander Williams?

Alexander Williams RHA is best remembered as a landscape and marine painter, but he was also an ornithologist and taxidermist of note and a professional singer. He was born at the house of his aunt in the Diamond, Monaghan town. His mother, Alice Williams had gone to visit her sister-in-law, Anne Whitla. Both women were heavily pregnant and went into labour almost simultaneously, with the result that Alexander arrived just before midnight on April 21, 1846 and his first cousin early the following day. Family legend had it that, after the two babes had been placed on red plush cushions to be admired by one and all, their mothers reclaimed the wrong babes! If that was the case, then Alexander was the man who, as Robert Whitla, emigrated to North America to distinguish himself in the Canadian Rifles. Another first cousin was Sir William Whitla, physician and politician, after whom the Whitla Hall at Queen’s University Belfast is named.