TOPIC:

Hello all. I am currently (and have been for some time) conducting research on an individual named Reginald Danbury Davies who also went by Rhys Davies in latter years, and am looking for some information on his service in the Boer War. I have been unable to find any record of actual service in the Boer War and most documentation mentioning his service is all over the place and hard to piece together.

What is known on the individual comes from various sources such as newspaper articles as well as census and later service records, however, all are very vague as to his service prior to world war one.

Reginald was born 9 Jul 1882 in Wargrave, Lancashire, England and the earliest record showing any form of military service is in the 1901 census as living with his mother and aunt in Malpas, Cheshire with the occupation of "Soldier, Corporal infantry". A few months later he has attestation records that show him joining the Household Cavalry - Royal Horse Guards on 23rd April 1901 (service number 904), however this would be dated 1 month after the 1901 census record of him being listed as a Corporal and he lists on the attestation record that he has not served prior.

Reginald in 1904 moved to Canada to live with his family there and joined the Canadian army for WW1 whereby he states on his attestation records ( here ) that he has served 7 years prior in the imperial army and was consequently given the rank of Captain and eventually the rank of Lt Col. in charge of the Canadian 44th Battalion. In a book written on his unit in WW1 titled 6000 Canadian Men, of which Reginald gave a forward, it states: "Lieut-Col. Davies comes to the battalion with many years of professional military experience behind him. Trained in the hard school of the Guards, he had served from private to sergeant in the South African War - and was one of the first in the old regular army to win a commission from the ranks under the system introduced in 1901. Eleven years' residence in Canada makes him familiar with the Canadian viewpoint".

Later newspaper articles from after WW1 he is stated to have been on the Canadian Committee of Imperial Defence and later intelligence services. One article, states that he served in the British regular army 1899-1919 serving in South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, the Sudan and France, however this article incorrectly states that he won the VC. That said however, other articles of the time also state that he joined the regular army in 1906 and served in the Indian Northwest Frontier and Chitral Campaigns (in later years he did mention serving in India in a letter to 'The York Daily Record' newspaper) of which the date is contrary to all other sources.

Further to this, official and newspaper photos of Reginald in dress uniform during WW1 and between the war years and in the early years of WW2 such as here and attached, show him as having both the Queen's medal (with clasps) and kings medal (with clasps), and what looks to be the Africa General Service medal, however, they are too blurred to see which clasps he had.

Whilst living in California, USA where he was apparently (according to the guardian newspaper) attached to the British Consulate General in San Francisco between 1939 and 1941 as an intelligence officer, he was engaged by the Ministry of Information to be a chief propaganda speaker during WW2 and secured passage to England by joining the merchant navy as a seaman gunner and boarding the Abraham Lincoln as part of CONVOY HX 149. In newspaper articles and Official MoI advertisements (located at the Imperial War Museum and Australian War Museum such as here ), Reginald is stated as having joined the army at the age of 16 which would put him joining in 1898 at the beginning of the 2nd Boer War.

I have attached various sources showing the above and am hoping that some kind person or persons may be able to help unravel what service Reginald actually had during the Boer War and what campaigns he served in during the Boer War if at all.

Please note that there is another RD Davies in the Boer War records as serving with the ASC and Natal Mounted Police however, this individual who was Reginald David Davies, is not the same person I am looking for.

Thanks for any help that can be provided,

Drayke

Drayke,

I can see why you are having difficulty piecing together what actually happened in his life.

There are some existing service papers for this man on FindMyPast which will hopefully shed light on what he was doing during the Boer War period.



Best wishes
David

Hello David,

Thanks for replying. Yes it is frustrating. As to the records on findmypast, I have had a look at them in the past and they are the attestation/service records from 1901 I mentioned and so offer no indication of previous service prior to that date. Not sure why the one dated 1886 is dated as such as that would place him at age 4 so assume it is the approximate birth date that has been erroneously added to the year section.

I am starting to wonder whether he either signed up under a false name due to being 16 (not sure if it was legal then) and then 're-signed' up in 1901 at the age of 18 with those being the attestation records on file which would mean, i assume, a near impossibility of finding him prior to 1901.

What makes it even more odd is that according to the 1901 attestation/service papers he deserted 4 Feb 1904 which lines up when he went to Canada that being11 Feb 1904. Why this is odd is that, I would assume it would be a black mark against his name for enlisting as a Captain in WW1 and also the fact that in a Court-martial proceeding he was involved in against another soldier under him in his regiment, he is stated to be ardently against desertion and gave recommendation for the said soldier to be shot.

Apologies to bump this topic up again, however, I have found some more information about Reginald that shows that he was a Corporal in the 2nd Devons and was injured and therefore sent home in March 1901. This newspaper article (dated 2 Mar 1901) lines up with his family living in Brixham (mother was a school head mistress there), the census record previously mentioned showing him to be a corporal in the infantry, and also lines up with the wound details of being wounded on the hip, of which, a scar on the right thigh is mentioned in his Attestation records for the Household Cavalry - Royal Horse Guards on 23rd April 1901 (service number 904).

It is also still a little odd that on the Attestation record for the Household Cavalry (1 month after he returned from Africa according to the newspaper article bellow) he states that he has never served in the infantry, despite having done so as per the attached article, census record and medals.

With this new information, in searching the records here as well as elsewhere, I cannot find any mention or record of Reginald Davies being part of the 2nd Devons. Am I looking in the right place or could his 2nd Devons records/medal roll entry be lost?

That article gives us something else to work with.
The only R Davies on the 2 Devonshire QSA medal roll is no 5342. His service records are not available, but the papers of 5340 George Parnell are extant and give an enlistment date of April 1899 at age 18 years.
5342 Davies medal record is annotated variously, “Forfeited. Deserted 22/4/01” “Invalided 14/1/01” “Retd 5-5-11” “Retd 30-5-08”




He also qualified for a 1901 date bar, but NOT for a KSA
Note that Deserted 22/4/01 is the day before he signed up with Royal Horse Guards. It is no surprise that he told the RHG that he had no previous army service.
In Casualties in the South African Field Force all of the killed and wounded of the 2nd Devonshires at Botha’s Kraal are dated at 20 Feb 1901. 5342 R Davies is NOT listed.

Pete

Thanks for looking into that Pete. Nice to see some of the mystery being solved with regards to him. Shame that his service records are not available as given the varying information, there is that chance that it is a different R Davies. I take it that it is common for the records to be lost for various individuals?

If using the Parnell records as a date reference you mentioned, it would put him at 16 years old when enlisting which is what I have found through the various newspaper articles found as well as Ministry of Information details, though still seems to be a lot of oddities with his service.

Some details do line up such as the R Davies of the 2nd Devons, and interestingly the desertion date (even more so considering his RHG record shows him deserting in 4/2/1904 and then 14 days later being in Canada!) and his signing up the next day to the RHG, however, the rank is different (not corporal) as well as what seems the medal claps with the record only showing one, despite the pictures I have found of him which are in the first post (albeit not clear) showing multiple claps to the QSA as well as a KSA with 2 bars or such as this photo taken WW1 when a Major as showing the ribbon bar with what looks like DSO, QSA and KSA WW1 Photo .

I suppose there is always the (highly probable) chance that he lied about his rank on the census record as well as whoever gave the info to the newspaper. I would have thought however, that it would be a lot harder to lie about medals considering these are issued by the military directly. The other issue comes in that one of the images in the opening post i attached shows him to also have what appears to be the Africa General Service medal.

It also, if this is him, makes you wonder how he managed to convince the Canadian Military at the start of WW1 to start him with the rank of Captain and then be appointed to Major and 2IC of the 54 Battalion after 1 month and then Lt-Col (if I am reading his WW1 records right) upon deployment 3 months later considering his desertion record as well as never being (at least what I can tell so far) above the rank of private or trooper - though I suppose lying here as well could have helped. Not that it really mattered considering the distinction to which he served.

What would the 'Retd' numbers mean shown on the record you found and if not a Botha's Kraal casualty, what would the date of is invaliding out 14/1/01 apply to battle wise?

Medal wise, is there a chance that they were issued later after some form of enquiry to issue them?