FAREWELL TO BIKER DAD KILLED IN CRASH
FLARES were set off and a flock of white doves released as hundreds of mourners paid their respects to a much-loved motorcyclist.
Mason Williams, 28, died in a collision involving a car and a motorbike on Cardiff Road in Newport on the night of Wednesday, February 2.
The popular dad-of-one, who had only discovered months before that he had a second child on the way, was celebrated as around 200 mourners braved the rain for his funeral on Friday.
Friends and family gathered near Maesglas shops at around 10am, with many sporting red ties, coats, shoes and umbrellas in homage to Mr Williams’ favourite colour.
Others wore “RIP Mason” T-shirts, while a hearse carried floral tributes including “brother”, “nephew” and “daddy”.
Mr Williams’ coffin was carried on a modified sidecar alongside a Suzuki Hayabusa motorbike – a touching tribute to the Maesglas man’s passion for biking.
Mourners led a procession through Maesglas, with traffic coming to a standstill for several minutes on Cardiff Road near the scene of last month’s crash where hundreds had gathered to pay respects in the days after Mr Williams’ death. Nearby, people could be seen kissing a T-shirt with a picture of their late friend on it.
Mourners later made their way to the funeral service at St Woolos Cathedral, where red bows adorned many of the lampposts outside.
Mr Williams’ relatives did not speak directly at the service but instead had a eulogy read out on their behalf. In it, they said Mr Williams’ “smile and cheekiness became the talk of the ward” when he was admitted to hospital with a heart condition as a child.
“He would somersault any life hurdle with his trademark giggle and cheeky smugness,” they said.
They said Mr Williams had “excelled at almost everything he turned his hand to”, including being a gifted biker and drummer, and recalled him singing Whitney
Houston in his boxers with “a cup of tea in one hand and a bacon sandwich in the other”.
Calling him “Newport’s most infamous biker”, Mr Williams’ family said his love for bikes helped him “create a community of youngsters” with the same passion and whose bond “has been so evident in the days since [his death]”.
They said Mr Williams met his partner in 2016, and recalled his excitement at the news in November 2020 that they would become parents.
As well as his love for their dogs Fendi and Dior, whom Mr Williams “considered his surrogate children”, his family said he was a proud father and that there was “no prouder look upon a parent” than him pushing his son’s pram – “the only vehicle with more than two wheels that he was prepared to operate”.
Tragically, Mr Williams had only discovered last December that he and his partner were expecting their second child.
“The impression Mason has left in the world has been immense and immeasurable,” his family said, paying tribute to the “compassion, love and respect” of his friends and the “Everest of beautiful memories” he had left them in his absence.
After carrying Mr Williams’ coffin – emblazoned with a “Bikelife” number plate in another nod to his passion for bikes – out of the cathedral, a poem was read on the steps of St Woolos before a flock of white doves was released.
Mourners were seen setting off flares of red smoke from their cars as they drove away from the cathedral, accompanied by a chorus of car horns, before moving on to Langstone Crematorium.
The cathedral and crematorium services were live-streamed at Maesglas sports and social club – known as the Muffler – where friends and family were invited after the funeral for a final toast to Mr Williams’ life.