Entrepreneur Extraordinaire Sir Charles ‘Cow’ Williams K

nighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2000 for his outstanding contribution to Barbados' development in agriculture, construction, tourism and sports, but still universally known by his schoolboy nickname of ‘Cow’, Sir Charles Othniel Williams has devoted his entire life to a relentless pursuit of success in a remarkable range of business interests and leisure activities.

Born on the 24th November 1932 at Ashford Plantation in St John, where his father Elliott was employed as a manager, Charles Othniel did not have to live long to discover how tough life can be. When Elliott Williams was dismissed through no fault of his own, the family was evicted from the manager’s quarters and put out onto the street penniless. Largely dependent on charitable goodwill, Elliott took any kind of menial work that came his way until he eventually got a job as manager at Edgehill Plantation.

That early introduction to genuine hardship made an indelible impression on Charles Othniel’s young mind and set the tone for his family’s industrious approach to life in the years that followed. Long days of hard work were routine, growing food to survive was the norm, making a few dollars on the side was essential. If the nine Williams children wanted anything, they had to earn their own money to pay for it. By the time Charles Othniel turned twelve, in addition to milking cows, raising chickens, pigs, goats and calves, breeding rabbits and keeping bees, he was already working as a leader boy on a team of mules, doing the work of a grown man, as well as diving up and preparing sea urchin roe to sell. And he enjoyed it all.

“Believe me when I tell you, when you’ve seen your mother cry because she couldn’t buy you a pair of shoes you will never forget it. That’s why I willingly did all my chores as a boy. Hard work never scared me and I was always happy to make an extra buck. That work ethic has followed me throughout my life.”

Charles Othniel Williams became forever known as ‘Cow’ after being labelled that by a teacher on his first day at Lodge School. When he left Lodge at eighteen, Cow went to work in the agriculture sector while continuing to expand his extra moneymaking activities, including running commercial fishing boats and sexing chickens for the poultry industry, both of which generated significant income. Thanks to his willingness to “work from before the sun came up until long after it went down”, Cow did well enough within the first nine years to earn himself the right to lease Forster Hall Plantation in St Joseph.

Around that same time, 1960, in what turned out to be a pivotal moment in his life, desperately needing a tractor to carry out agricultural work on the farm, Cow invested in a second-hand Caterpillar D6. He knew that acquiring the D6 would not only save him money, but also make money by doing work on other farms. But, as enterprising and determined as ever, rather than stopping there, he pushed harder and used the tractor to do earth moving jobs in the construction sector. Just ten years later, after acquiring an impressive list of international clients like Costains, Johnson,

Mitchell and McAlpines, Cow established C.O. Williams Construction.

Today, C.O. Williams Construction is one of the top companies in the Caribbean, having successfully undertaken numerous major projects in Barbados, St Lucia, St Vincent, Antigua and the Bahamas, ranging from harbours to airports, hydro-electric power plants and golf courses. However, the most iconic success for both the company and Cow himself was building the multi-million-dollar Hess Oil Terminal in St Lucia. Always willing to take a calculated risk and back himself as a winner, Cow accepted that hugely challenging job, “Even though at the time I didn’t know how to put up a storage tank, never mind a whole transhipment facility with a big harbour for oil tankers!”

As a construction man who invested heavily in land, Cow Williams transitioned very successfully into development, being the first person to develop the area known today as the Warrens commercial centre. He also built Millennium Heights and played a leading role in the creation of the island’s first residential marina at Port St Charles, as well as delivering Apes Hill Club, an upmarket residential community developed around a magnificent golf course and polo centre.

During his journey to becoming one of the Caribbean’s most prominent businessmen and landowners, Cow still found enough time to passionately pursue his favourite hobbies of polo, sportfishing and horse racing. And he excelled in them all!

In 2009, his Apes Hill Club polo team won the prestigious Queens Cup in England. In 2015, aged eighty-two, Sir Charles Williams entered the Guinness Book of Records as the World’s Oldest Active Polo Player. And in 2017 he was the recipient of the Hurlingham Polo Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award, quite remarkably for his contribution to the development of polo in England.

Cow’s love of horses also naturally led him into racing, where he has produced generations of top-class horses, regularly winning the Barbados Champion Breeder of the Year.

As an accomplished fisherman, Cow’s boats have won a number of international fishing competitions over the years, while he has personally registered several record catches along the way. But perhaps the highlight of his career was participating in the 2018 Offshore World Championship in Costa Rica, at the sprightly age of eighty-five.

Very few people have experienced a life that is as multi-faceted and deeply textured as that of Cow Williams. He is a living legend from a period when life was much more rugged and people much less sensitive, a man who has been equally at ease rubbing shoulders with workers, tycoons and royalty. As such, it is impossible to encapsulate his story in a short article like this, particularly because the greatest interest value can be found in the gritty details of the dramatic real-world adventures behind his many achievements.

To read more about the life of Sir Charles ‘Cow’ Williams, look out for his autobiography, COW, due for release in 2019. Contact: keith@millerpublishing.net

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