Eventually, he went into business on his own, but met with scant success. Williams later joined the firm Dawood & Co., while in duty i\on 15 March 1916, he slipped and fell, fracturing a hip bone. He failed to recover from this injury, and died of complications a month later on 17 April 1916 at his residence at Shamrock, 32 Barker Road, and was interred at the Bidadari Cemetery in northeast Singapore.