Name
Harry Davis
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
22/02/1916
53
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Chief Petty Officer
99527
Royal Navy
H.M.S. Vivid
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
HEAVITREE (ST. MICHAEL) CHURCHYARD EXTENSION
R.3.2
United Kingdom
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Rickmansworth memorials
Pre War
Harry was baptised in Rickmansworth on the 23rd of February 1862 the son of Edward (Ned), a Labourer, and Eliza (nee Webb) Davis.
Ned died shortly after Harry’s birth and on the 16th of May 1869 his mother married William Lovett in St Mary’s, Watford. In 1871 they were living Front Row Rookery Cottages, Watford with Harry 9 and daughters Eliza 1 and Sarah 0 together with a Joseph Davis 4, presumably an illegitimate son of Eliza’s. In 1880 age 18 Harry married Ann Elizabeth Hyde in Barnet and in 1881 they were living with Ann’s parents at Belgrave Cottages, Barnet, Harry being described as a Royal Navy Seaman. They had two children Sarah Elizabeth in 1883 and George Harry in 1887.
Ann died in 1888 and on the 15th of December 1891 Harry married Mary Ellen Gliddon in Topsham, Devon. Their son William Joseph was born in 1892. The 1901 census has Harry, a Coast Guard Boatman, at Coast Guard House, 9 Mile Town Trinity Road, Sheerness with wife Mary and sons George and William. By 1911 Harry was a Chief Petty Officer at 1 Coast Guard Station, Lowestoft, with Mary and William, an Apprentice Blacksmith. Mary died in 1912 and in 1914 he married Edith Maud Penny in Devon. Their son Charles was born the same year but died in 1915.
Harry died on the 22nd of February 1916. In 1939 his widow Edith, was living 4 Church Terrace, Exeter.
He is recorded as enlisting on 24/01/1880. place not known
Wartime Service
Harry enlisted in the Royal Navy on the 24th of January 1880 and served in numerous ships before transferring to HM Coast Guards, still under Admiralty control, in 1889.
With the Coast Guards he served on both ships and shore stations. He was posted to HMS Vivid 1, a shore based establishment at Devonport, on the 11th of September 1915, but was invalided out just nine days later due to deafness.
He died on the 22nd of February 1916, presumably due to natural causes.
Acknowledgments
Malcolm Lennox, Mike Collins
