Additional information and photographs
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Grave of K B Davis at Ancre British Cemetery,
Somme
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When Kenneth Davis enlisted in the Mersey Division of the RNVR at HMS Eagle in January 1913, he gave his profession as civil servant,
Board of Trade, and his address as 6 Rivington Road, Egremont, Cheshire. He was 5 feet 8 and three-quarter inches tall and
had dark hair and brown eyes. He enlisted with another Deputy Superintendent from the Mercantile Marine Office,
George Richards, who also lived in Egremont. (Richards too was to join the Nelson Battalion of the Royal Naval Division (created after war
broke out in August 1914) but our research has not yet turned up any information about the early service of either man.
Richards
died of wounds at Gallipoli in July 1915.)
The next entry after 1913 in Davis' service record is his promotion to Acting Leading Seaman on 25 February 1915.
In March 1916 he was at the 10th Division Base Depot in Egypt and in May he was transferred to the Nelson Battalion. On 16 May
he embarked on the Ionian at Mudros, landing at Marseilles on 22 May. He was promoted to Acting Petty Officer on 2 June.
Davis was posted first as 'wounded' on 13 November, then 'wounded and missing' on 13 November, which was the day the British
launched the Battle of the Ancre. In this, the RN Division's first offensive on the Western Front, major successes were achieved
but at the cost of very heavy casualties. It appears that Davis' body was subsequently recovered and identified, as he is on a burial list dated 28 January 1917 and has a grave in Ancre Cemetery.
(Source: service record held at the Fleet
Air Arm Museum)
For the Battle of the Ancre and the part played by the Nelson Battalion see, for example, The Royal Naval Division, Douglas
Jerrold, (1923, reprinted by Naval & Military Press 2001) and Beaumont Hamel, Newfound Park, Nigel
Cave (Leo Cooper, 1994)
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