18 Facts About Betty Williams

Elizabeth Williams was a peace activist from Northern Ireland.

Betty Williams was a co-recipient with Mairead Corrigan of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976 for her work as a cofounder of Community of Peace People, an organisation dedicated to promoting a peaceful resolution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Betty Williams headed the Global Children's Foundation and was the President of the World Centre of Compassion for Children International.

Betty Williams was the Chair of Institute for Asian Democracy in Washington DC Betty Williams lectured widely on topics of peace, education, inter-cultural and inter-faith understanding, anti-extremism, and children's rights.

Betty Williams was a founding member of the Nobel Laureate Summit, which has taken place annually since 2000.

In 2006, Betty Williams became a founder of the Nobel Women's Initiative along with Nobel Peace Laureates Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Shirin Ebadi, Wangari Maathai, Jody Betty Williams and Rigoberta Menchu Tum.

Betty Williams was born on 22 May 1943 in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Betty Williams's father worked as a butcher and her mother was a housewife.

Rare for the time in Northern Ireland, her father was Protestant and her mother was Catholic; a family background from which Betty Williams later said she derived religious tolerance and a breadth of vision that motivated her to work for peace.

Betty Williams credited this experience for preparing her to eventually found her own peace movement, which focused on creating peace groups composed of former opponents, practicing confidence-building measures, and the development of a grassroots peace process.

Betty Williams was drawn into the public arena after witnessing the death of three children on 10 August 1976, when they were hit by a car whose driver, an Irish Republican Army paramilitary named Danny Lennon, had been fatally shot in return fire by a soldier of the Kings Own Royal Border regiment.

Betty Williams was so moved by the incident that within two days of the tragic event, she had obtained 6,000 signatures on a petition for peace and gained wide media attention.

Betty Williams kept her share of the money, stating that her intention was to use it to promote peace beyond Ireland, but faced criticism for her decision.

In 1978 Betty Williams broke off links with the Peace People movement, and became instead an activist for peace in other areas around the world.

Betty Williams received the People's Peace Prize of Norway in 1976, the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1977, the Schweitzer Medallion for Courage, the Martin Luther King, Jr.

At the time she received the Nobel Prize, Betty Williams worked as a receptionist and was raising her two children with her first husband Ralph Betty Williams.

Betty Williams married businessman James Perkins in December 1982; they lived in Florida in the United States.

Betty Williams died on 17 March 2020, St Patrick's Day, at the age of 76 in Belfast.