Edric Albert Davies

From The Orange Wiki

DAVIES, Edric Albert

Service no: 731 [1]

Place of birth: Bathurst, 1888

Address: Katoomba

Occupation: Provision merchant

Next of kin: William Beveridge Davies (father), Cargo Road, Orange, later Alibi, Main Street, Katoomba

Date of enlistment: 22 August 1914

Place of enlistment: Randwick

Age at enlistment: 25

Fate: Embarked HMAT A23 [Suffolk], Sydney, 18 October 1914. Appointed Lance Corporal 1 January 1915. Promoted to Corporal, Lemnos, 14 April 1915. Appointed Lance Sergeant, Anzac Cove, 7 May 1915. Killed in action, Lone Pine, Gallipoli, 8 August 1915.

Date of death: 8 August 1915

Buried: No known grave

Edric Albert Davies was the son of William Beveridge and Jane Davies, born at Kelso on 10 December 1888. He was a provision merchant by trade having been apprenticed to Courtney Hawke in Orange for four years.

Edric enlisted at Randwick on 22 August 1914 aged 25 years, embarking with his unit per HMAT A23 [Suffolk] on 18 October 1914 bound for Alexandria. Here he was appointed Lance Corporal on 1 January 1915 and while at Lemnos was promoted to Corporal, on 14 April 1915. While his unit was at Anzac Cove he was appointed Lance Sergeant on 7 May 1915.

According to his military record Lance Sergeant Davies was reported missing in action at Gallipoli, however Red Cross Wounded and Missing Files contain reports from fellow soldiers that he was killed by a bullet through the head during the charge at Lone Pine. It is presumed that he is buried in Lone Pine Cemetery, Gallipoli, however there is no marked grave.

Edric Albert Davies is remembered on the Holy Trinity Church Orange Roll of Honour, on the World War I Roll of Honour on the southern face of the Orange Cenotaph and on panel number 32 on the Roll of Honour at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

In July 1917 a tree was planted at Orange Public School in Corporal J Davies’ (presumably Edric) memory. It was one of 26 trees planted in honour of fallen soldiers who had attended the school. [2]

In 1923 the Anzac Memorial Avenue of trees was planted along Bathurst Road to commemorate fallen WWI soldiers. A tree was planted in honour of “Sgt EA Davis”. It was donated by Courtney Hawke. Very few of the trees are still standing today.

Oh, the anguish of his parents;

Oh, the bitter tears they shed,

When they heard their boy was missing,

And they wondered was he dead.

Oh, those weeks and months of torture;

Oh, the agony and pain;

And they wept and prayed and wondered—

Will their boy come home again?

"Killed in action," came still later,

But still they'll watch and wait for him. [3]

Two of Edric’s brothers also served in WWI: Leslie Davies SN 515 and Cecil Claude Davies SN 2262.

Cecil was born at Raglan in 1894. He was a warehouseman by trade and had tried to enlist in 1914 but was refused because he was too short (5’ 3”). He tried again two years later and attested at Bathurst on 21 February 1916.

Cecil embarked at Sydney as part of the 45th Battalion 4th Reinforcement on board HMAT 118 Wiltshire on 22 August 1916. He proceeded to France on 22 December 1916. In June 1917 he received a gunshot wound to his left hip and was sent to England for hospitalisation. He returned to France in November 1917 and was reported missing in action on 13 April 1918. This was later altered to read he was a “Prisoner of War in German Hands”. In January 1919 he was repatriated back to England and Australia per Shropshire on 1 April 1919.

In 1919 Cecil married Jessie Vera Coleman at Newtown. He died at Burwood in 1967.

• Sharon Jameson and Margaret Nugent, January 2019