New Zealand's Greatest Doctor:
Ulric Williams of Wanganui
A Surgeon who became a Naturopath
By Brenda Sampson
An interview with Joy Bignell
Joy worked for Ulric Williams for several years as a secretary. In the 30's there were three secretaries, Mrs Williams, Joy, and Betty Davis.
Joy said, "I was brought up very strictly in a Salvation Army family. I was a rebel; kicking against the rules. When I first went to work for the Doctor, I wasn't a happy girl. I was still living at home. There were many things wrong with me, including headaches. He taught me how to think; positive thinking. He said, "You are what you think; you become what you think. To be healthy, you must think in the right way; you have to think healthy. You don't look for wrong things to happen; you expect right things to happen. Thoughts have a way of attracting what you think about, to you". It took me a long time to learn this.
I used to be sick in the stomach at times. It happened whenever I had problems. When my son had a bad car accident it happened; that was nerves. When I was young it happened frequently. Dr Williams said it was because I worried about things that didn't even matter. I thought along the wrong lines; things I wanted to do, things I wasn't allowed to do, and stupid things that young people worry about. He taught me to think positively; to accept the fact that I was brought up that way; to impress on my parents that I was grown up now and to gradually go my own way. So I did, and I didn't go far astray.
When I learned to think positively, I got over that sickness and the headaches too. I had terrible headaches for years. I think the physical symptoms are brought on by one's attitude and way of thinking. I remember a lady who came to the doctor with severe stomach trouble; very bad pains, maybe ulcers, maybe she was worried she had cancer. She came back several times. I used to type his letters following these interviews. He would prescribe a diet sheet and would put a letter on the dictaphone. I would type the letter and I learnt a lot in this way. The second time this woman came, he found what was at the root of the trouble. Her husband was one of two brothers with a wealthy father. She expected her husband would inherit half his father's wealth; but the other son was responsible for the whole fortune being lost through unwise investments. She was full of resentment and hatred for the brother, and said she would never forgive him.
Dr Williams wrote her a very straight letter. She was a religious woman and a woman in her position should have known better than to bear hatred and resentment like that. He said to me afterwards, "Either she'll come back, or I won't see her again". But she did come back. She said, "I had the guts to take what he told me". She was new woman; she gradually came right; her pains disappeared. I saw her three months after her first visit; she looked radiant, a different woman. She found that the resentment was not worth carrying; it would not bring the money back.
It was amazing how he could see into your mind. With me he could see that I resented the things I wasn't allowed to do. I wasn't allowed to go to dances or to the pictures. He could see that was in the back of my mind. He was a great man. The last time I saw him was shortly before he died. I was driving past Hikurangi and saw him sitting on a seat by himself. After Mrs Williams died, he was very lonely, so I stopped the car and spoke to him. He said, "Joy, you don't look any older." He always used to say that to me every time he saw me.
He and his wife were wonderful people. I was with them for over four years and they were very good to me, and I've never forgotten how he taught me to think. I had a brother-in-law who used to tease me unmercifully. I was thirteen and he would tease, tease, tease. I used to get so upset that I would cry, and try to bite back, and he would still tease me. I learnt from the doctor that the best way to combat teasing is not to let it worry you. This new attitude made all the difference; he never teased me after that, we were the best of friends.
I find the same thing in my work; I work for the Education Board; I am the head typist and the Boss's secretary. I have a lot of men to deal with; some are not so nice. The girls say, "You're patient, I don't know how you put up with them." Well that's another thing the Doctor taught me; I don't get in a flap or get flustered; I won't let myself. I've got so used to doing it that it's automatic. He made a wonderful difference to me.
I have been very lucky; I've had a good husband and a good marriage. We've had problems with our children; our youngest son is a mad-head in a car. He was almost killed one night; he was in the river for twelve hours and we didn't know whether he was dead or alive; but as for our marriage, it's been a good one.
Things like the accident will upset me and I will get a bit sick in the stomach, but next morning, I think, "I can't undo anything that's happened. I have to face up to it." The way I face it is to get on with doing something. (I asked Joy if she remembered any of Dr Williams' sayings?) She said, "I keep thinking of this one. He used it a lot, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he".
I enquired about Mrs Williams.
"She was a wonderful person, a real lady. She never did a thing wrong. I never saw her upset except once, when their son, Peter, got married without letting them know. He had been studying in Scotland and met a girl on the boat coming home. He brought her home and they stayed with Mr and Mrs Williams. That would be 1938, I think. One day they went off and got married. Mrs Williams said, "I thought he would have asked his father and me to go along." That day was the only time I saw her give way to her feelings. She cried that day.
She was lovely person. It didn't matter if you were the gardener or the woman who did the washing. She would talk to you as if you were her best friend. She had a rather high pitched voice and some used to think she was la-di-da, but she wasn't. She was very kind, and very good to me.
I remembered that Dr Williams had once said his wife was insecure. Joy said, "Before the Doctor took on this nature cure, and changed his way of life, their marriage was unhappy, with drink and high living. But they both changed completely; an amazing change. It was as though they both had the same vision at the same time, and it saved their marriage; and saved everything. I'm sure it was God's way, (if you like to put it like that), of bringing him to the place where he had to do this work. There is no doubt that he did a tremendous amount of good in Wanganui and other places.
Some people in Wanganui were opposed to him, but those who were for him were wholeheartedly for him. My mother thought he was mad. I remember having a row with my boy friend. The next day I went to work feeling ill. At lunch time I cycled home against a head wind and fainted. Mother put me to bed and called the Doctor, thinking he would give me some pills or medicine. Instead he said, "Get up out of that bed. There is nothing wrong with you. I told you this morning to stop worrying about that stupid boy!" And there was nothing wrong with me really. Both my husband and I have been healthy. We ate wholemeal bread and lots of fruit and vegetables in summer. I brought my children up that way and they never had the infections that most children get. I am 55, but I can keep pace with the younger girls at work, and run rings round them energy-wise. I tell them, "You are what you eat". That was one of the Doctor's sayings. Another was, "If you put kerosene in you car, you wouldn't expect it to run properly and you can't expect your body to run well if you put rubbish into it.
Did you hear about the minister who had arthritis? When he first came to the surgery, he could not walk from his taxi to the verandah without the aid of two sticks, just shuffling. He was put in Sister Burson's Home, where he fasted for weeks on water and fruit juice. When he left, he was walking six miles a day. I myself saw the letter he wrote to the Doctor. He went back to his parish up Te Kuiti way. He used to preach at three churches, thirteen miles apart, each Sunday, and walk to them all. I had seen him come into the Doctor's surgery, hardly able to walk at all. He wasn't a young man either; he was about sixty at the time.
Dr Williams had wonderful results with ulcer patients. He used to put them on a diet of nothing but raw milk for up to three months, and if they ate correctly they would not come back (thought correctly too, of course). You could get raw milk in those days. He thought milk was ruined by pasteurising and treating it.
Tuberculosis was another thing he had a great success with. These patients didn't have to go into isolation then, as long as everything was kept separate; dishes, etc washed separately. You had to notify the authorities, and people in the house had to be examined periodically. The Doctor used to billet them privately. I remember one girl. I travelled to Christchurch with her on the ferry. I was seasick and she was as fit as a fiddle."
Lastly she spoke of cancer patients. She said that most of them were too far gone. They had left it too late for the Doctor to do anything. (But I remember seeing a private letter written by Dr Williams. One sentence stuck in my mind, "This is the forty-third case of cancer that has responded to our treatment".)
