Eliot Crawshay-Williams was born in 1879, in London to Arthur John Williams and Rose Harriette Thompson Crawshay. He was a direct descendant of the Crawshay family who built Cyfarthfa Castle. 

Eliot spent time as a serving officer in the army in England then India before a period of travel in Persia. The latter inspired his 1907 book ‘Across Persia’.  As well as being an author and army officer, he was a politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP). Eliot died in 1962 in Kent.