Editing Eric Williams (section)

==Early life==
Williams was born on 25 September in 1911. His father Thomas Henry Williams was a minor civil servant and devout [[Roman Catholic]], and his mother Eliza Frances Boissiere (13 April 1888 – 1969) was a descendant of the mixed [[Creole people#Caribbean|French Creole]] [[Mulatto]] elite and had [[Afro-Trinidadian and Tobagonian|African]] and [[French people|French]] ancestry. She was a descendant of the notable de Boissière family in Trinidad. Eliza's paternal grandfather was John Boissiere, a married upper-middle class Frenchman who had an intimate relationship with an African slave named Ma Zu Zule. From the union, Jules Arnold Boissiere, father of Eliza, was born.<ref>[https://trinidadexpress.com/news/local/a-nation-loses-its-father/article_fdf3b588-66fc-5059-8652-a59d52760cc8.amp.html "A nation loses its 'Father'"] (20 March 2011). ''[[Trinidad Express Newspapers|Daily Express]]''. Retrieved 25 July 2024.</ref> His sister Lucy married [[Alexander Chamberlain Alexis]], who was a minister in his government.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-09-27 |title=Former PNM minister dies at 93 |url=https://trinidadexpress.com/news/local/former-pnm-minister-dies-at-93/article_dfec2b19-e2ef-5a08-b6ce-74b4a31c7703.html |access-date=2025-04-10 |website=Trinidad Express Newspapers |language=en}}</ref>

He saw his first school years at Tranquillity Boys' Intermediate Government School and he was later educated at [[Queen's Royal College]] in [[Port of Spain]], where he excelled at academics and football. A football injury at QRC led to a hearing problem which he wore a hearing aid to correct.

He won an island [[scholarship]] in 1932, which allowed him to attend St. Catherine's Society, [[Oxford University|Oxford]] (later renamed [[St. Catherine's College, Oxford|St. Catherine's College]]). In 1935, he received a first class honours degree, and ranked first among history graduates that year. He also represented the university at football. In 1938, he went on to obtain his doctorate (see section below). In ''Inward Hunger'', his autobiography, he described his experience of studying at Oxford, including his frustrations with rampant racial discrimination at the institution, and his travels in [[Nazi Germany|Germany]] after the [[Nazi Party|Nazis']] [[Adolf Hitler's rise to power|seizure of power]].