From the excellent website: www.fovanthistory.org
‘Dick’ Davies, eldest son of Richard Thomas and Ida Davies, of Fovant and Yunderup, Western Australia, was a Stoker on the battleship H.M.S.Barham. He died on 25th November 1941, aged 22, when the ship was torpedoed in the Mediterranean. He is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.
Born in Sutton Row. Family lived in Brook Street in 1922, then, probably as their family increased moved to Gerrards Farmhouse in Sutton Road.
Attended Fovant School.
On leaving school assisted his father who, as a woodman, was contracted to Chivers of Devizes.
Linesman for the Nadder Valley under 18s football team.
Keen model maker – had a small workshop in the dairy at Gerrards.
Easy going , outward looking chap according to his brother.
Enlisted in the Royal Navy at the beginning of 1939 therefore pre-war.
Originally assigned to H.M.S. Dunedin, but an illness caused him to miss its sailing date. He was then posted to H.M.S. Barham, an assignment which had tragic consequences for him and his family.
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