Williams was born in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, the only son of a civil servant. He was educated at Chigwell School, and read Greats (Classics) at Balliol College, Oxford, graduating in 1951 with a congratulatory first-class honours degree,[1]and winning aprize fellowship at All Souls College Oxford, before spending his two-year-long national service in the Royal Air Force flying Spitfires in Canada.[6]