At 95, Ebbw Vale wing Bernard Williams is believed to be the oldest living Welshman to have faced the mighty All Blacks and one of the first to have played rugby for a top French club. He spoke to Iwan Gabe Davies about his extraordinary life.

KNOWN in his playing days as JB, Bernard Williams’ life took him from his family’s bakery business in Tredegar to being hired as an engineer in South America for French oilfield services giant Schlumberger, before he lived and studied for a time in the United States.

The great-grandfather, who lives in the leafy Cardiff suburb of Cyncoed, holds double distinctions.

He is believed to be the oldest living Welshman to have crossed swords with the legendary All Blacks and is one of the first of his countrymen to have played for a leading French side, the three-times Gallic champions Pau.

‘JB’ was a member of the fine Ebbw Vale side of the 1950s who were one of the leading teams in Britain at the time.

The junior Welsh long jump champion also played for Newport, where he ousted the great Ken Jones for a while, and Tredegar before his job with Schlumberger took him to France and Pau in the Pyrenees where he played at centre for the club while training at his company’s base in the city.

Mr Williams said: “I was born in Tredegar in 1923 and got lassoed into working for my family’s bakery business.

“I was about 16 when I played for Tredegar before I joined Ebbw Vale.

READ MORE:

“This was because there was a connection between Ebbw Vale and Aneurin Bevan’s brother Billy, who I knew, who had a milk round in Tredegar.”

The Second World War put paid to his rugby ambitions for six years and he served in the artillery for his country.

He did however represent the British Army, playing in the same side as Welsh rugby legend Haydn Tanner, the scrum-half who won 25 caps between 1935 and 1949.

After the war, the Steelmen were crowned national club champions three times in the Fifties – 1952, 1954 and 1957.

Mr Williams recalls: “Ebbw Vale at that time were a really progressive club and had plenty of money from the steelworks.

“Our fixture list included some 'outlandish' teams from the time like Saracens. In those days taking on a side like that was something else. Going to play in London was like going to New Zealand!

“And at the end of the season, we’d go on tour to either Cornwall or Ireland.

“I won the Welsh championship once with Ebbw Vale and we were always in the top three or four.

READ MORE:

“We played some good rugby and enjoyed ourselves. The game was supposed to be amateur but we used to have a few back handers! Usually it would stretch to a couple of pints of beer after the game!

“I remember our hooker Albert Jackson would insist on having a couple of pints before the game – for Dutch courage I think because his shins would be kicked to shreds in the scrums!”

His showdown with the All Blacks took place two days before Christmas 1953 when he played for a combined Abertillery and Ebbw Vale team.

Hopes of recording a victory against Bob Stuart’s New Zealand side must have been high.

After all, they had not fared to well in Wales on that tour.

The national side had beaten them 13-8 at Cardiff Arms Park four days before the clash at The Park in Abertillery.

At the same ground in November, the Blue and Blacks of Cardiff had lowered the Kiwis’ colours 8-3 and Swansea held them to a 6-6 draw at St Helen’s.

But it was not to be for Abertillery and Ebbw Vale that day after they went down to a heavy 22-3 defeat.

Mr Williams said: “I think I touched the ball three times but made about 33 tackles that day! “We were completely overwhelmed. That’s about all I can remember, apart from the huge crowd who turned out.”

After answering an advert in the Daily Telegraph, he decided to spread his wings, leave his family’s bakery business and trained as a seismologist with Schlumberger in the south of France after passing his interview in Paris.

He remembers: “The company sent me to Pau for a few months and I ended up playing about 10 games for the city’s rugby side in the centre.

“It was a marvellous experience and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with them. The social aspect what fantastic. The club’s headquarters was the local casino.

“Pau is a fantastic place with the coast not too far away or you can go climbing in the mountains and it’s not too far from the Spanish border.”

After he completed his training he was sent by his employers to South America.

It was while he was in Venezuela that he suffered a serious eye injury after a cable snapped and nearly blinded him.

He was flown back to Paris where he was treated by specialists.

Mr Williams married a local Tredegar girl called Maria Cavanna whose Italian parents had settled in Blaenau Gwent and ran a thriving fish and chip shop in the town.

His globetrotting also took him to the USA where he studied at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and he lived for a time in Philadelphia.

He explains that his wife missed Wales too much and they decided to head back home.

They had two sons, Karl, a barrister, and Gabriel, a designer. He now has five grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

His wife, a magistrate, passed away in her mid-80s in 2009.

I asked if he still follows rugby. “Yes, but not with the same enthusiasm I used to,” he replied.

“I feel as if a lot of the skill has gone out of the game these days. The emphasis is more on brute force now, which is a shame.”