Lucy Gwendolen Williams was born in Lower Bebington, Cheshire, England on 27 December 1870 and was the daughter of the Rev. Henry L. Williams. By 1880 she had moved to Bingley in Yorkshire where he father was vicar of Holy Trinity church. She studied under Alfred Drury (1859-1944) at Wimbledon College of Art from 1891 to 1894; and at the National Art Training School (Royal College of Art) in South Kensington, London from 1895 to 1898. She then attended the Atelier Colarossi, Paris. She subsequently worked as a sculptor and painter. She mainly painted in watercolour. Her sculptural work principally consisted of reliefs, statuettes, usually in bronze, and portrait busts, notable among which was a bust of Robert Owen in 1926.

She began exhibiting at the Royal Academy in London in 1893 and continued to do so regularly until 1935. She also exhibited at the Society of Women Artists, London Salon, New Gallery, and International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers in London; Royal Birmingham Society of Artists; Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts; Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery; Bristol Academy; Leeds City Art Gallery; Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin; Royal Cambrian Academy in Clwyd, Wales; Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool; Manchester City Art Gallery; the Royal Scottish Academy in Liverpool; and at the Paris Salon. She participated in the Art Exhibitions of the Royal National Eisteddfod of Wales in 1926 at which she was awarded a silver medal. A solo exhibition of Williams' work was held at Brook Street Art Gallery in London in September 1935.

Among her patrons were Queen Marghereta of Italy and Queen Alexandra of England. During the years c.1910 to c.1919 she lived and worked in Rome where she had a studio on 51 Viale Giulio Cesare. Throughout her career she suffered from arthritis and severe backache which often made working difficult. In the 1920s she visited the USA and lived in New York City.

She died in Buxton, Derbyshire on 11 February 1955.