David Marshall Williams
| David Marshall Williams | |
|---|---|
David Marshall Williams
|
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| Born |
November 13, 1900 Cumberland County, North Carolina |
| Died | January 8, 1975 (aged 74) Raleigh, North Carolina |
| Other names | "Carbine" Williams |
| Occupation | gunsmith, author. |
| Known for | Weapon designer |
David Marshall Williams (November 13, 1900 – January 8, 1975) was the American firearms designer of the floating chamber and the short-stroke piston. Both designs used the high pressure gas generated in or near the breech of the firearm to operate the action of semi-automatic firearms like the M1 Carbine.
David Marshall Williams was born in Cumberland County, North Carolina, the son of James Claude Williams by his second wife, Laura Susan Kornegay. He was the eldest of seven children and the younger half brother of the five surviving children from the first marriage of James Claude Williams to Eula Lee Breece. James Claude Williams was a wealthy and influential landowner of hundreds of acres in and around Godwin, North Carolina.
As a young boy, he worked on his family's farm. He was expelled from school during the eighth grade by Godwin School Principal H.B. Gaston and began work in a blacksmith shop. At the age of 15 he enlisted in the Navy by claiming he was 17 years old. His Navy enlistment was short-lived when the Navy became aware of his true age.
In 1917, he enrolled in Blackstone Military Academy. He failed to complete the first semester due to his expulsion for theft of government property in possession of the school. Several rifles and 10,000 rounds of ammunition were found in his trunk by Col. E.S. Ligon, owner of the academy, who found Williams had shipped the stocks from the rifles home and refused to return them.
On August 11, 1918 in Cumberland County, he married Margaret Cooke and they later had one child, David Marshall, Jr.
After his marriage, he obtained employment as a manual laborer with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. Several weeks later while working with a railway team, he pulled a handgun and shot at a bird flying by, missing the bird but succeeding in having his employment terminated by his supervisor, Captain McNeill, section master.
Williams began operating an illegal distillery near Godwin, North Carolina. On July 22, 1921 the Cumberland County Sheriff and five deputies seized the still and product after the workers fled. While transporting the evidence away from the scene, the deputies came under gunfire from the woods. Riding away from the scene on the police car sideboard, Deputy Sheriff Alfred Jackson Pate was struck by two bullets and died at the scene. Williams was arrested for the murder the following day.
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