Address / Local links: 6 Anthony Road, Welling
Family / Relatives: Son of John and Gertrude Susannah Davies. Husband of Elsie Doreen Davies of Welling
Other Information: A Hotel Porter. Born Wales, son of a Policeman
Gunner Arthur Edward Davies – “Killed in action” as his regimental document states, was involved in one of the pivotal campaigns of WW2, and was killed during a decisive part of this battle…
“Fought near the western frontier of Egypt between 23 October and 4 November 1942, El Alamein was the climax and turning point of the North African campaign in the Second World War. The Axis army of Italy and Germany suffered a decisive defeat by the British Eighth Army”.
With no known grave, our Arthur Davies’ name is to be found on the Alamein Memorial in Egypt. “Alamein is a village, bypassed by the main coast road, approximately 130 kilometres west of Alexandria on the road to Mersa Matruh…
HISTORY INFORMATION
The campaign in the Western Desert was fought between the Commonwealth forces (with, later, the addition of two brigades of Free French and one each of Polish and Greek troops) all based in Egypt, and the Axis forces (German and Italian) based in Libya. The battlefield, across which the fighting surged back and forth between 1940 and 1942, was the 1,000 kilometres of desert between Alexandria in Egypt and Benghazi in Libya. It was a campaign of manoeuvre and movement, the objectives being the control of the Mediterranean, the link with the east through the Suez Canal, the Middle East oil supplies and the supply route to Russia through Persia.
The ALAMEIN MEMORIAL forms the entrance to Alamein War Cemetery. The Land Forces panels commemorate more than 8,500 soldiers of the Commonwealth who died in the campaigns in Egypt and Libya, and in the operations of the Eighth Army in Tunisia up to 19 February 1943, who have no known grave. It also commemorates those who served and died in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Persia.
The Air Forces panels commemorate more than 3,000 airmen of the Commonwealth who died in the campaigns in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Greece, Crete and the Aegean, Ethiopia, Eritrea and the Somalilands, the Sudan, East Africa, Aden and Madagascar, who have no known grave. Those who served with the Rhodesian and South African Air Training Scheme and have no known grave are also commemorated here.
The Memorial was designed by Sir Hubert Worthington and unveiled by Field Marshal The Rt. Hon. Viscount Montgomery of Alamein on 24 October 1954”.
A Welshman, Arthur Edward Davies came to be recorded on our local memorial through his marriage to Elsie Doreen Miles (1912-1995) and their home in Anthony Road. Elsie had actually been born in South Africa, where her father John Miles (a Belvedere man) had been serving with the Royal Artillery. He later became an armaments inspector clerk.
Arthur and Elsie married on Boxing Day 1934 at St Mark’s church Plumstead Common, and they had a son – Leonard – in 1939.
We don’t know how or where Arthur and Elsie had met – Arthur was born on 28th July 1912 in Merthyr Tydfil, but we know that in 1934 he was living in Earlsfield, south London, and working as a hotel porter. Later records tell us that he remained in this job, even after he had addresses in Plumstaed and Anthony Road, Welling. The 1939 Register has him as living at 44 Tormount Road Plumstead with his wife’s family.
Within a few years, however, he was in the army and serving in the north African campaign with the 73 Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/73rd_Heavy_Anti-Aircraft_Regiment,_Royal_Artillery
73 Anti-Tank Regiment RA was formed from cadres from 13 & 52 Anti-Tank Regiments in November 1940, at Leeds. Three batteries were formed with a fourth added in September 1942. The Regiment was disbanded in November 1945.
Arthur’s parents did not live long after Arthur’s death – John DAVIES (1883-1948) and Gertrude Suzannah nee LEWIS (1880-1947) had married in Cardiff in 1906 – both passed away in Merthyr Tydfil. John Davies had been a sailor before becoming a police constable soon after his marriage.
Arthur’s wife Elsie died in Birchington, Kent, in 1995.
Pictured along with Arthur’s military document are St. Mark’s church Plumstead, the Alamein Memorial, and its unveiling by Viscount Montgomery of Alamein on 24 October 1954”
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If anyone is able to add any extra information, provide more family details, or suggest any corrections, please let us know – also, if anyone has any more photos of this individual listed on our memorials, please get in touch. Thank you.
Commemorated
- St. Michael’s East Wickham Church Memorial Tablet
- Alamein Memorial, Egypt
This story has been researched by volunteers. We have taken every effort to ensure its accuracy. If you are related to Arthur Edward Davies, or if you have any further information, please do get in touch.