Figure 11. 'Slim Jims' by Hardie Williamson for Ravenhead Glass, c.1960s. Heights 5½in.

Williamson was born in Hull in 1907 of Scottish and Yorkshire parents. About 1916 the family moved to Edinburgh to avoid the bombing of the First World War and Williamson went to Herriotts Academy where he showed an enthusiasm for drawing. When the family returned to Yorkshire he began his art school training from 1925 to 1929 at Harrogate School of Arts and Crafts. Winning a scholarship to the Design School at the Royal College of Art, he then specialised in textiles and mural painting, and, after his graduation in 1933, he joined the teaching staff at the Royal College in 1934 as a part-time assistant in charge of the first-year students in the Design School. When the Royal College was evacuated to the Lake District during the Second World War Williamson ran the textile design course and was appointed full-time Head of Printed Textiles in 1951. He left the Royal College in 1955 after 21 years, during which time the College had seen notable design figures of the century such as Robert Goodden and Robert Welch grace its portals. He spent the remainder of his career as an industrial design consultant, working for Bagley's of Knottingley and for Royal Worcester Porcelain in the 1930s, and in the 1940s designing textiles for Warner's, children's book covers for Dent Dutton, and pressed glass for United Glass. Between 1944 and 1974 Williamson was employed as Design Consultant by United Glass Bottle Manufacturers. In the remaining twenty years of his life he lived quietly at his home in Henfield, West Sussex, with his wife Susan, also an artist and designer, devoting himself to painting, gardening and photography.
Following Williamson's death, in Worthing on 4th November 1994 at the age of 87, Broadfield House Glass Museum was able to rescue the designer's entire collection of glassware and associated paperwork, thanks to the efforts of Hardie Williamson's doctor, Patrick Reade, who recognised the significance of the material for the history of British glass and notified the museum. During the course of three visits to Henfield in February, March and April of 1995 the museum saved over 1,000 items of glass as well as related paperwork. The Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester did the same for the extensive textile collection. If the two museums had not saved the collection it is almost certain that the entire contents of Myrtle Villa would have been destroyed. As it is, the archive now provides the foundation for a much-needed reappraisal of his importance to 20th century design.
During his 30 years at United Glass Hardie Williamson created no fewer than 1,711 glass designs, which were marketed at different times under the names of Sherdley and Ravenhead, the factory locations in St.Helens under the overall ownership of United Glass. The firm was one of the most progressive pressed glass firms in the country, having installed automatic pressing machines and a machine for making thin blown tumblers at Sherdley in 1932, and between 1945 and 1948 developing a second plant at Ravenhead for making stemware using fully automatic Westlake machines.