New Zealand's Greatest Doctor:
Ulric Williams of Wanganui
A Surgeon who became a Naturopath
By Brenda Sampson
Shorter letters, notes, extracts from Pat Grieg, B. Gardiner, Lily Elliott, M. Seidric, three anonymous patients, Maire Tidey and Fan Oborn
Pat Grieg
I did not meet Dr Williams personally, but knew him very well by letter writing. I was in bed for quite a number of years and wrote to him to ask if he could help a friend of mine in America, which he did, and then asked me if he could help me.
He was a wonderful person. I found him so very kind and understanding. With his diet I slowly built up my nervous system and blood, and for years now I have walked, and get around enjoying life. He must have been wonderful to know and I have always regretted not meeting him in person - those who did meet him were privileged.
Mrs Bracy Gardiner
My memories of the Mr & Mrs Williams go back to January 1940. I remember them both as so kind and understanding to me. They were extremely busy at that time as Mrs Mary helped the Doctor with typing and with his extensive letter writing.
We had many discussions and arguments about health and what it entailed. Looking back I feel that the Doctor needed this, and lacked it as the years went by. He needed the stimulation of discussions - adverse discussions - to keep him thinking along positive lines, and to keep his mind open and receptive. But really everyone needs this.
The Doctor was positive and sensitive in his approach to people who responded, but could be harsh in his efforts to break through a crust of apathy or indifference. He was before his time and encountered much resistance from his colleagues, and this caused him much loneliness, though I felt more tact on his part would have been helpful in this situation. Today his beliefs are common knowledge and cause no comment. There has been rapid change in medical and scientific research. A balanced diet is accepted without question.
Ulric Williams was not interested in making money, and was generous to a fault. I saw many instances of this. He was a good bridge player, a good golfer, and had many silver cups for swimming and other athletic pursuits.
I loved Ulric and Mary Williams and regretted that we lived so far apart. They taught me much and wrote regularly to me but unfortunately I am not a letter hoarder. I doubt if Ulric Williams could have accomplished what he did without the help and support of his wife. She was gracious, long-suffering, intelligent and a very charming woman. I am grateful to them for the love, teaching and understanding which they so willingly and graciously gave me.
Lily Elliott
Dr Williams was interested in the ideas and work of the Unity movement. The staff at Aramoho also found Unity helpful, and their booklets were available in the Homes. I still find them helpful.
At the time of my contacts with the Doctor (1950), he was subjected to much opposition.
He often had patients living in his own house, (special and often serious cases). He was willing to help others even at some risk to himself. He was not concerned about material supply, believing that all would be well. I don't think he ever sent a bill to patients.
(Unity was an American Christian movement in the 1920's, and still is. It emphasises the healing power and loving-kindness of God, and encourages positive spiritual attitudes. There is a branch in Auckland, which has links in Wellington. The address is Box 52 088 Kingsland Auckland 1030 Phone (09) 828 1679 Mon to Thurs, Fax (09) 828 1672).
M Seidric
Dr Williams treated me for a run-of-the-mill disease due to faulty diet. His regime was a tough one, and after doing my morning farm chores lasting over three hours, I was to have a cold plunge before breakfast, which seemed the last straw - I was hungry.
I assure you I used to cuss him at this point, but as soon as I started cussing and feeling it was just too much, I immediately felt an invincible beam of support which could only have come from him. And after a few mornings of this, I noticed that this beam seemed to be coming through a south-facing window - and he was about 400 miles away, due south. I am convinced that this beam from him was available all the time, but I was on the wave length to receive it only below a certain "low". I assure you I was in a most unreceptive mood, so I think "invincible" is the right word. After a month or two of his treatment, even walking up hills, I felt that I didn't even have a body; movement was so light and effortless.
Anonymous
During the early days of the war, my little daughter was taken ill in a small house in Aramoho, Wanganui. Being a traveller, I knew no one in Wanganui, but her rasping cough at two o'clock in the morning really alarmed me. With the usual maternal forebodings, I thought - pneumonia at the least! What to do? Suddenly I remembered; the doctor-writer of a book I had read recently, lived in Wanganui. Dare I ring him, Dr Ulric Williams? I dared, standing shivering in the hall of the boarding house. A reassuring voice said: "Don't worry, I'll be there in about a quarter of an hour," and he was. I let him in the front door and he sat on my small daughter's bed and talked. She watched him between coughs. He said, "She has a bit of laryngitis; keep her on fruit and I'll be out to see her tomorrow."
He was as good as his word, and at 10 am on Easter Saturday he came back, this time on his bicycle with a splendid big dog sitting up behind! The landlady said, "He got his stethoscope out of that dog basket", and looked at me in horror, but I never knew whether he did or not, and certainly didn't care. I had complete faith in him and from that day always consulted him on ANY health problems, though it usually meant a journey from New Plymouth to Wanganui, or a consultation by telephone. But we never failed to get well under his guidance.
The little girl is now married and has a little girl of her own that she put under his care from Auckland. She had a letter from him not long before his death with the same reassuring messages that have made him one of our great men of all time. Yet I read his book in the first place, only out of admiration for its flawless prose. Of all that it really meant, I was not aware till quite some time later.
Anonymous
I went to Wanganui in 1965 and spent almost a month there staying with Miss McDougall in Parsons Road. I had many long talks with him in the course of treatment and grew to know, honour and respect this man who I think was 'born before his time'. He came under much criticism especially from the medical profession who did not understand the true nature of his healing. Of course he made mistakes, but who does not? I think he was a great man, frustrated and thwarted many times in his attempts to help mankind.
I contracted arthritis when my son was born in 1950 and became partially crippled in the hands and a foot as well as signs of it elsewhere. I had treatment with aspirin and gold injections, etc. All these drugs, and inability to get at the cause, instead of just treating the effect, led me to contact Dr Williams. I am glad I did. He taught me to look at life in a different way and I have never looked back. Arthritis is still with me but now not many of my friends know I ever had it. What I have remains static. I can go tramping, cycle, dig the garden, do yoga and use my hands for anything where once I had difficulty in putting on my baby's nappies. Life is good to me and I enjoy every minute of it. My son recently married and after getting his degree last year, is now at Secondary Teachers' College in Christchurch. My daughter just 16 is in the sixth form.
Anonymous
I had seen a photograph of Dr Williams, yet did not realise it was he to whom I was introduced half an hour after arriving at Nurse Burson's house. He was tall, with a pleasant and kindly manner. He seemed to sense my nervous state quickly when we shook hands, but at no time did he ask for any information regarding my reason for wanting to see him. We were all guests and NOT patients.
I loved the way he would recline in a chair, completely relaxed, 'letting go and letting God'. Then quietly chatting to us, either individually or in a small group, about the importance of right thinking, right living and right eating; (lack of these is so often the cause of our sicknesses). To be unforgiving, resentful, jealous, etc, hinders the healing which we may be seeking. The peace of Christ is always with us. We have the power to turn our thoughts from the situations around us, to become inwardly quiet and calm.
Miss Carson, who came to the home daily to help with our exercises, had herself been a very sick person, suffering from asthma and bronchitis. I saw a photo of her taken during that time. She wore heavy spectacles and looked unhealthy. It was hard to believe that she was the same person. She asked if she could take these daily classes after she herself had been restored to full health.
One little old lady of sixty who had been in the Wellington hospital for some time, was sent to Wanganui to see Dr Williams. I have never seen such a pathetic looking person; exactly like a little withered apple; bed-ridden and so very frail, She told Dr Williams that the Lord had taken away her fiancé forty years previously, and she had been full of resentment ever since.
An unmarried accountant was partly paralysed in both legs. He lived with his widowed mother. He was in love with a desirable lady, but was afraid to risk marriage when he was so comfortably cared for by his mother. We must use our creative instincts in some way, not necessarily by being married. Teaching, nursing, etc help to satisfy these instincts. This man was much improved when I left, but I don't know the end of his story.
Nurse Burson's Home was at Somme Parade, Aramoho. I was there for six weeks in 1941. She was assisted by Mrs Motley.
The Rev Lionel Richards, an Anglican minister from Christchurch, benefited considerably from the period he spent in Wanganui. Although I did not know him, it helped me in my decision to go there too. I had been told that Dr Williams was against orthodox religion, because the churches were filled with people who did not practise what they preached. They prayed, but were still full of fear. A widowed wife of a clergyman said to me once, "I was at my lowest ebb when my husband died and I was left with five young children. A friend asked, "Do you pray about it? If so, why worry? And if you worry, why pray?"
After all this time, I look back on those six weeks as the most worthwhile period in my life. I am now seventy, and acknowledge that I do not always keep rigidly to the wisest eating habits. However, I do know that my so called incurable skin trouble, for which I had all sorts of treatment over a period of years and also my inward goitre, were finally cured.
Maire Tidey
I think the following is part of a letter from Maire Tidey, a naturopath in Otago. I had asked if she remembered any of Dr Williams' sayings. She said, "I am sure you'll find many quotable sayings in Ulric's book. Our conversations tended towards more personal matters - scoldings, exhortations, praise (very seldom, and not always deserved at that!) squabbling, arguing, exasperation (on both sides),tempered by respect and affection. However here are one or two.
"If you want to become good, be good; if you want to become well, be well."
"All you have to do is to stand out of your own light, and let the blessings pour in on you."
"Everything you want or need is waiting for you - not even waiting to be taken; just waiting for you to allow it to happen to you."
"Healing comes to those who want health, to use it aright - not just for their own selfish ends."
"Don't say 'please God'; say 'thank you, Father'."
Incidentally, the last one is an echo of my own thoughts, habits and exhortations to others!
I do not agree with the people who said that Ulric would not want a biography. He loved and welcomed appreciation (not adulation) of himself as a channel for healing and help. He resented often bitterly, the neglect and abuse which fell to him from time to time. He allowed himself to be more moved and shaken by it that I felt he should. I have learnt to shrug it off. It comes to all healers or 'channels', but it seemed to hurt him more as he got older. Also Ulric would certainly not disapprove of an unbiased biography, if it could help in any way to spread his gospel of health and well-being.
His great gifts were loving-kindness and enthusiasm; his great faults intolerance and a closed mind that couldn't see merit in what he didn't believe in. His enthusiasm, convictions and loving kindness functioned through whatever form of treatment he happened to be using at the time. Mr Christie, a surgeon and his great friend, called him a saint. He was a saint - with the failings as well as the virtues of many better known saints.
Fan E Oborn
I always admired Dr Williams for continuing to live in Wanganui after his 'conversion'. He was much criticised, but I felt that just as St Paul was 'arrested' on the road to Damascus, so Dr Williams was called for a special purpose. His so-called new-fangled ideas are now being carried out by psychiatrists and doctors.
Mrs Sybil Woods, his niece, is a marvellous person, and if you have not already met her, I hope you will eventually be able to do so. Her husband was vicar of St Mary's Church and we were extremely sorry to lose them when they visited England two years ago. They will be relieving in the Methven parish for a short period, before retiring. I know that she thought the world of her uncle.
