A PORTRAIT of Lyme Regis Town Council’s first ever town clerk has been hung in the Guildhall to honour his service to the town.
Harry Williams was the first town clerk when the new town council came into being in 1974 following local government reorganisation.
Harry spent most of his working life in the role, joining Lyme Regis Borough Council in 1959 and seeing the council through the changes until his retirement in 1983.
The portrait was unveiled in the Guildhall by Harry’s daughter Gilly Warr and the mayor Cllr Philip Evans, who made the proposal to the council to honour Harry in this way.
Gilly said: “We are absolutely thrilled because my dad spent the majority of his working life in the chamber. My brother and sisters and I felt it was perfectly fitting as his granddaughter was getting married here in the Guildhall.
“We are very grateful to Cllr Evans for organising it for us.”
During local government reorganisation, Harry successfully negotiated for the new town council to retain valuable local amenities, including car parks and land on the seafront.
Even though he retired in 1983, Harry briefly came out of retirement in 1984, when he worked with Cllr Evans, who was mayor at the time.
Cllr Evans said: “The fact that Lyme Regis Town Council is such a well-financed authority is fully down to Harry, who sacrificed his own local government career as he could have been deputy chief executive at West Dorset District Council.
“He was the last town clerk for the borough council and the first town clerk for the town council. He carried out all the negotiations during those changes and his negotiations were so successful that Lyme retained car parks and all the seafront undertakings, which no other council in Dorset was successful in doing. It made him very unpopular.
“In the beginning, Lyme Regis Town Council had very little money but Harry came out of retirement and worked for several months without getting paid.
“We have portraits of most of the mayors and town criers in the Guildhall so I think it’s a fitting tribute to him.”