Thomas Reginald Davies, usually known as Reggie, was born in August 1885 at Maesbury. He was the second of the five children of John Edward, a farmer at The Fields in Maesbury and Emma Jane Davies. The children were John, Thomas, Cyril, Douglas and youngest, sister Hilda who died in infancy. Brother Douglas was also a war casualty – Private 2736 GH Douglas Davies. KIA 24 August 1916. Thomas was baptised at Holy Trinity, Oswestry on 30 August 1885 and was educated at Oswestry Grammar School.  In 1901 he went to sea enrolling at HMS Conway, a merchant marine cadet training ship berthed in Liverpool. He graduated in 1903 and then went to sea. He was an apprentice for three years to Messrs. James Nourse Line. He served as a mate on the square rigged sailing ship ‘Arno’ before moving over to steam ships, first serving on the ‘SS Indrani’ in 1907. He also worked for the White Star and Brocklebank lines sailing out of Liverpool. He gained his Master’s ticket in April 1911. On 5 October 1915 he married his cousin Florence Jackson, they would have a daughter Mary Doreen born 29 June 1916 – 3 months before her father was killed, she never met him.

Thomas had joined the Royal Naval Reserve in January 1915 and had been posted to HM Yacht Conqueror II – a former pleasure yacht and hired by the Navy and used for coastal and inland patrols. He was based at Scapa Floe operating around the Orkney and Shetland Islands.  On the evening of 26 September 1916, Conqueror II was investigating a suspicious ship in the waters between Shetland and Fair Isle when she was torpedoed and sunk by U52. Thomas was rescued from the water but died the next day, 27 September 1916.  A fellow officer wrote ‘He died at his post, beloved by everybody in the ship – like the brave chap he was, and I feel I have lost one of my best friends’.

His body was brought home. The funeral was held at Holy Trinity Church – where he had married about 12 months before. The cortege, preceded by a band which played the ‘Dead March’, an Honour party of 140 officers and men from RWF and mourners, processed down Salop Road to Oswestry Cemetery where he was buried in the family grave. Three rifle volleys were fired over his grave and a bugler played the Last Post. His widow left a wreath ‘To my Darling Husband, from Florrie and Baby’. The grave also has a memorial to his brother Private GH Douglas Davies. Thomas is also commemorated on war memorials at Holy Trinity Church, Oswestry School, HMS Conway and Measbury.

Brother to Private 2736 GH Douglas Davies, Shropshire Yeomanry 3/1 att. 10 Bn Cheshire Regiment. KIA 24 August 1916, Blighty Valley Cemetery, Authuille Wood

Additional family history provided by a family descendant John H Davies:

“In compiling a biography of my grandfather Alderman Thomas Ward Green DL. JP, has led me to research his numerous first cousins. One of these was the father of the brothers Thomas Reginald and George Henry Douglas Davies both killed in 1916 whilst serving in the Great War and whose names are recorded on the Park Gates. The purpose of this article is principally concerned with their genealogy and family life.”

“The brothers’ father was John Edward Davies (1853-1917). He was the son of Edward Davies and his first wife Mary Pamphilia Green. He lived at The Fields, Maesbury where his family had farmed for several generations. Unfortunately Mary died at the time of her son’s birth. Edward Davies re-married her younger sister, Elizabeth Green, and with her had three more children, Mary, Thomas and Catherine. The four children were brought up together at The Fields.”

“In 1881 their daughter, Mary Davies, married Thomas Jackson. They had two children, the younger being Florence Muriel Jackson born in 1886/7. Thomas Jackson was a farmer and dealer of Maesbury, and afterwards Maesbrook, he also bred racehorses, the most notable being Zoedone which won the Grand National Steeplechase in 1883 (though not then in Thomas’s ownership).”

“In 1882 John Edward Davies married Emma Jane Jackson, the sister of his brother-in-law Thomas. John Edward and Emma Davies of The Fields, Maesbury had six children – John Edward (Eddie), who afterwards continued at The Fields: Richard Cyril Davies. (may have emigrated): George Henry Douglas Davies – killed in 1916: Hilda Mary Davies – died in infancy: Charles Horace Davies. (may have emigrated): Thomas Reginald Davies (Reggie) – killed in 1916.”

“On 3 October 1915 Thomas (Reggie) Davies married his first cousin Florence Muriel Jackson. Their celebrations though must have been a muted because of the serious illness of parents to both of them. Florrie’s father, Thomas Jackson, died in the following December, he had never recovered from a serious trap accident sustained a year or two earlier; and, Reggie’s mother, Emma Jane Davies, died on 2 May the next year, she having been an invalid for several years before her death. The Davies’s of The Fields were liberal supporters of St. John’s Church in Maesbury and numerous church and village events took place in their grounds. After Emma’s death her bath-chair was given for village use.”

“For John Edward Davies the only bright spot of 1916 was the birth of his granddaughter – Reggie and Florrie’s daughter, Mary Doreen Davies, whose baptism was on the 23 July 1916, Four days previous John Edward’s brother, Thomas, had died suddenly of a stroke. After loosing his wife and his brother, the loss of sons, Douglas and Reggie, only a few months later proved to be more than he could take. In his book about Maesbury F.A.(Bert) Mason wrote that John Edward never got over his loss and died in 1917.”

“The Parish Magazine records that a memorial service for Douglas, conducted by Rev. AC Roberts, was held at St. John’s, Maesbury on Sunday 17 September1916. The magazine reported Reggie’s death saying that he was in charge of a patrol boat which was attacked by a submarine and that … ‘he received wounds from which he succumbed in a few days time. His body was taken to Oswestry for interment. The fact that Lieutenant Davies was laid to rest on the first anniversary of his marriage adds to the pathos of the sad event’. It seems very likely that there would have been a memorial service for Douglas similar to that of his brother, but there is no report from St. John’s, Maesbury in the parish.”

“Incidentally, the brother Thomas (Green) Davies farmed for many years at The Rolly, Osbaston, and one of his sons, Thomas Harold Davies (cousin to Reggie and Douglas) came home from WW1 on leave in 1918 but died suddenly of pneumonia aged 31 and was buried at Knockin with military honours, my grandfather (in his diary) describing the ceremony as ‘impressive’. (Lieutenant T H Davies, Royal Engineers. 26 November 1918, (CWGC) and commemorated on Knockin War Memorial”

“It appears that neither Reggie’s widow, nor his daughter, ever married, but that they lived long lives devoted to each other. Florence had been a widow for 70 years when she died (of Longden, Morda Road, Oswestry) in 1987, aged 100 years; Mary Doreen Davies died in 2003 at the age of 86, never having known her father.”

“A large grave containing eight members of the Davies family of The Fields is at Oswestry Cemetery and a large memorial in St. Oswald’s Churchyard (near the parking area) remembers Douglas and Reggie’s grandparents and aunt, also of The Fields, Maesbury.”

John H. Davies.

Acknowledgements.

References and Sources

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