Tribute paid to Oliver Williams, 'loving son and brother'

Heartfelt tributes have been paid to theatre-loving Oliver Williams after he died in a crash earlier this month.

The 27-year-old from Stratford died in the single-vehicle collision on the A34 at East Ilsley on 2nd October. Here, his family pays tribute to Oliver:

Oli was a bright, happy, thoughtful, caring and loving son, brother and grandson, and a shining light for all who knew him. He will be remembered for his infectious joy and for his charismatic nature.

He gave unwavering support to all his family, friends, his girlfriend and indeed anyone who needed a friend. He hated prejudice of any kind and worked hard to ensure that everyone around him was included and cared for.

The testimonials and memories from everybody who knew him have been moving and show just how much he blessed and enriched so many lives.

Oli earned a place at Jesus College, Cambridge, to study computer science, graduating in 2014. He led such an exciting life, achieving so much. He even travelled to Japan after university, where he taught English to local schoolchildren. He was also a keen mathematician and had a great love for languages, speaking French, Spanish and Japanese.

Oli was just 27 and loved his work as a lead software engineer at a video game software company that he was proud to work for. His major passions outside of work were acting, music and theatre. He starred in many theatre performances and musicals, making numerous wonderful friends along the way.

He was a young patron of the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he would try and watch a play every week. Nothing pleased him more than buying tickets for his parents, brothers and friends to watch the plays with him.

Oli was looking forward to his promising future after putting in an offer on a house the day before he died. We are a very close-knit family and are all finding it hard to come to terms with our loss, knowing we will never again see our handsome, tall, bright, fun, witty, generous, caring, loving son and brother. We miss our bright shining star more than words can ever say.