Name
Harry Davis
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
NA
Biography
Harry Davis was born in Shillington and married Ellen Weeden from Pirton sometime around 1908. In 1911, he was a butcher and they were living in Pirton and the newly weds, Will and Mary Weeden, were lodging with them. By this time, Harry and Ellen had one child, Lily Margaretta (b 1909), although oddly she is not listed in the census. Another child, Milner Lawrence, followed in 1912, so by the outbreak of war, Harry was married with at least two children.
The Hertfordshire Express of October 26th 1918 reports Harry as serving as a private in the Sherwood Foresters and having been in France for about six months. He had just suffered internal injuries which were sustained in action (on his birthday). They were serious enough for him to be hospitalised in Huddersfield. It also reports that, before the war, Harry was a grocer. In fact, he had worked for Palmers, a butchery business in Shillington. In the 1911 census, Harry is recorded as a butcher.
After the war, he returned to Pirton and had another daughter, Vera Betty (b 1921). Sometime in the early 1920s, Harry and Ellen bought Peartree Cottage from Jim Throssell. This was situated to the right of the village pond, now 28 High Street. It had been a general store in which Ellen had worked. They worked hard and extended the business (and the property). The left side served as the grocers and the right as the butchers. This part of the business seems to have started in 1926 and was announced the Parish Magazine of 1927. The butchery took place in a large outbuilding, some of which remains today and still has the grooves in the concrete floor to channel the blood away and into the village pond. It appears that he and Ellen lived in Pirton for the rest of their lives; Harry died on February 28th 1951, aged sixty-seven, and Ellen on March 19th 1961, aged seventy-eight. Both are buried in St. Mary’s churchyard. Their son, Milner, continued to run the business after Harry’s death until 1970
Additional Information
Text from the book ‘The Pride of Pirton’ by Jonty Wild, Tony French & Chris Ryan used with author's permission
Acknowledgments
Text from the book ‘The Pride of Pirton’ by Jonty Wild, Tony French & Chris Ryan used with author's permission
