Name
Harry Davis
25th June 1889
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
20/01/1920
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Company Quartermaster Serjeant
29629
Machine Gun Corps (Infantry)
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
BISHOP'S HATFIELD (ST. LUKE) CHURCHYARD
2. I. 16.
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
No inscription on his Headstone.
UK & Other Memorials
Hatfield War Memorial, Great North Road, Hatfield, Not on the Bishops Hatfield memorials
Pre War
Harry Davis was born on 25th June 1889, in Hatfield, Herts, son of George Davis a Groom (B 1861 in Haston, Glos) and Harriett Sarah Davis (nee Humphreys) (B 1869 in Hatfield).
1891 Census records Harry aged 1, living with his parents and sister Mabel 2 months, at 10 Primrose Cottages, Hatfield. Harry attended Hatfield C of E school from July 1892 until June 1896, when he transferred to the boys school.
1901 Census records Harry aged 11, living with his parents, brothers William 8, Albert 5, sisters Mabel 10, Gertrude 7 and Ethel 2, at 10 Primrose Cottages, Hatfield. His father was working as a groom (domestic).
By 1911 Harry had joined the Army and was serving as a Private in the East Surrey Regiment with the Service No. 8918 and stationed in Burma/Andaman Islands.
Wartime Service
On the outbreak of WW 1 Harry was still a serving soldier with the East Surrey Regiment – Corporal 8918. He disembarked in France with his Battalion on 19th January 1915. He later transferred to the Machine Gun Corps with the new Service No. 29629 and became Company Quartermaster Serjeant..
Harry Davis was mentioned in the Hatfield Roll of Honour. He survived the War, died in 1920.
Harry died at the Shorecliff Army Camp in Kent on 20th January 1920. He was buried in St Luke's Churchyard, Hatfield, on 24th January 1920.
The Bishop’s Hatfield Parish Magazine of September 1914, in the list of men mobilised from Hatfield, recorded: “Davies, Harry – Primrose Cottages – East Surreys Indian Army.” and then in February 1920: “Company Quarter Master Sergeant Davis, M. C. Corp who died in hospital at Shorncliffe on January 20th. The immediate cause of death was consumption but this was brought on by gas from which he suffered acutely on two occasions. Wide sympathy goes out to his wife and family on their bereavement.”
Awarded the Victory Medal, British War Medal & 1915 Star.
Additional Information
His younger brother Private 124455 William George Davis was killed in action on 17th September 1916, he is buried in the CWGC Adanac Military Cemetery in France.
The Hatfield Parish Council Souvenir Committee Ledger: Harry Davis of 11, Primrose Cottages received an “In Memoriam and Roll of Honour Album”
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne
Jonty Wild, Stuart Osborne, Christine & Derek Martindale, Hatfield Local History Society (www.hatfieldhistory.uk)
