George Albert Williams was a New Zealandrugby union player who toured with the 1888–89 New Zealand Native football team to the British Isles and Australia. Nicknamed "Bully", Williams was one of five non-Māori players in the Natives' side. Williams was born in Auckland in 1856, and did not start playing rugby until the age of 24. He was a member of the Wellington club Poneke, and was selected for Wellington province from the club in 1886, 1887 and 1888. In early 1888, Joe Warbrick, a member of the 1884 New Zealand team that toured Australia, started planning for a squad of Māori rugby players to tour the British Isles. As Warbrick was scouting for players throughout 1888, his plans changed, and he decided to include a number of Pākehā in the side. Eventually five Pākehā were included in the squad of twenty-six, and the side was consequently named the New Zealand Native football team. At 32, Williams was the oldest player in the team, and only joined a day before their first match. The tour became the longest in rugby history; 107 matches were played during the 14-month tour, which had legs in Australia, the British Isles, and New Zealand. Of these 107 matches, 74 were in the British Isles, and an average of a game every 2.3 days on that leg. Williams played in 53 of these, scoring 12 tries in the process, and captained the team on a number of occasions. In total, Williams played at least 75 matches on tour. Williams played in all three of the Natives' "international" matches while on tour; a victory over Ireland, a narrow loss to Wales, and a controversial loss to England. Williams retired as a player after the tour, but continued to be involved in the game as a referee. Along with two other players, he contributed to tour manager Thomas Eyton's Rugby FootballPast and Present, published in 1896, that gave an account of the tour. He contributed a number of article to the New Zealand Truth before the departure of the 1924 All Blacks. Outside of rugby, Williams was a police officer, and was involved in the arrest of the Maori spiritual leaderTe Whiti o Rongomai. He served throughout New Zealand, including in Wellington, Hastings, Invercargill and Marlborough.
