Ships
- USS Craven (DD-382) Captain, 19 December 1942 – 16 November 1943
Francis Thomas Williamson was born in Tiverton, Rhode Island, on 28 April 1907. He entered the United States Naval Academy in 1925 and graduated with the class of 1931. He was a lieutenant by July 1939. In June 1942 he became a temporary lieutenant commander, and on 1 November 1942 he was advanced to temporary commander.
On 19 December 1942 he took command of the destroyer Craven (DD-382). The ship was already in the South Pacific for the fight over Guadalcanal. For months afterward she escorted transports into the southern Solomons, the steady work of moving men and supplies to the island.
On the night of 6–7 August 1943, Craven fought in the Battle of Vella Gulf. She was one of six American destroyers, with Commander Frederick Moosbrugger directing the attack, that met four Japanese destroyers carrying troops toward Kolombangara. Torpedoes from the American force sank Hagikaze, Arashi, and Kawakaze. Shigure escaped. Craven came through the night undamaged, and her crew came through with her. Williamson received the Navy Cross, in the grade of lieutenant commander, for the way he handled the ship and timed her torpedo attack with the rest of the force.
Craven left Efate on 23 September 1943 for an overhaul at San Francisco. Williamson remained her commanding officer until 16 November 1943. From 26 October 1943 to 15 January 1944 he also commanded the destroyer Morris (DD-417), so the two commands overlap in his last weeks aboard Craven.
On 2 May 1944 he became commanding officer of the new destroyer Lyman K. Swenson (DD-729). She sailed from Boston on 31 July 1944, passed through the Panama Canal on 8 August, and reached Pearl Harbor on 30 August. Late in September she left Pearl Harbor for the western Pacific. Under Williamson she served with the fast carrier forces and in the landings in the Philippines, at Iwo Jima, and at Okinawa. He left the ship on 31 May 1945.
Williamson stayed in the Navy after the war and retired in October 1965 as a rear admiral. His later assignments included command of Cruiser Division 4 and duty as deputy director of the Office of Western European Affairs. From May 1962 to April 1964 he was chief of the Navy section of the Joint United States Military Mission for Aid to Turkey, service recognized with the Legion of Merit. He died in Solano County, California, on 25 February 1988.