Frederick ‘Fred’ Davies was born in Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales, in 1877, the son of Ivor and Mary Ann Davies (née Baldwin) of 13, Jeffrey Street, Newport. He was one of six children, but by 1911, he was the only one of the six alive! His father was an iron moulder.
He served an apprenticeship as a print compositor, but on the 11th February 1901, he enlisted in the South Wales Border Regiment and arrived in Brecon on the 17th February to begin his basic training. On the 30th March, he was posted to South Africa, as a member of the 2nd Bn., where the Boer War was in progress. As 7678 Private Frederick Davies, he served there until his return to Wales on the 25th June 1902. He was honourably discharged from the regiment the following day.
He used his skills as a compositor to secure a position as a printer on the trans-Atlantic liners sailing out of Liverpool and sometime at the end of 1914, when on home leave in Newport, he discussed the possibility of leaving the sea and re-enlisting in the British Army to fight in the war.
Nevertheless, he did not do this and on the 12th April 1915, at Liverpool, he re-engaged as a printer in the Stewards' Department on board the Lusitania. He joined the vessel on the morning of the 17th April before she left the River Mersey for the last time.
Three weeks later, he was dead, killed after the ship was torpedoed and sunk. Frederick Davies was aged 37 years.
His body was never recovered and identified afterwards and consequently, he is commemorated on the Mercantile Marine Memorial at Tower Hill, London.
The Liverpool and London War Risks Insurance Association Limited granted a yearly pension to his mother, Mary Ann Davies, to compensate her for the loss of her son, on
whom she must have been in some way dependant, which amounted to £18-0s.-3d. (£18.01p.), which was payable at the rate of £1-10s.-1d. (£1.50½p.) per month.
Register of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, 1881 Census of Wales, 1891 Census of Wales, 1911 Census of Wales, Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, UK Campaign Medals Awarded to World War I Merchant Seamen 1914 – 1925, Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records 1760 – 1913, Western Mail, PRO WO 97/4648/114, PRO BT 334, PRO BT 351/1/33603, PRO WO 97, UniLiv. PR 13/24, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated –10th February 2023.