William Davies

This story is shared by the Trust with kind permission from John Hamblin, Researcher.

William Davies, Captain 201367, 4th/7th Dragoon Guards, Royal Armoured Corps. Killed in action on the 28th of July 1944, aged 30.

William Davies was born at Camberwell on the 26th of December 1913, the son of Alfred Davies and Annie Maria Davies (née Houghton) of Camberwell in Surrey. He was educated at Alleyns School and he matriculated for St Catharine’s College, Cambridge on a Choral Scholarship on the 2nd of November 1933. He read Modern Languages and graduated with a BA on the 16th of October 1936. He was awarded a MA on the 25th of May 1940.

In 1941 he attended an Officer Cadet Training Unit before being commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 4th/7th Dragoon Guards on the 9th of August. And in 1943  he got married in Kent to Margaret Elizabeth Davies (née Moore) of Shooter’s Hill, London.

The 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards, as part of 8th Armoured Brigade, operated waterproofed Sherman tanks which landed with the first wave on D-Day at 7.25am on the King Sector of Gold Beach in support of the 50th (Northumberland) Division. They were to arrive on the beach slightly ahead of the infantry in order to attack and neutralise the German fortifications. By the evening B Squadron was fighting for the village of La Bas d'Audrieu which they captured the following morning.

On the 17th of July 1944, the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards, moved to an area to the north-east of Caumont in support of the 12th Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps. They were still there on the 28th of July 1944, when enemy bombers began dropping anti-personnel bombs on the camp at 11pm. William Davies was in the area of the Regimental Headquarters when he and Trooper Harry Monks were killed, with Lieutenant J.P. Jones and thirteen other ranks being wounded in the incident.

He is buried at Bayeux War Cemetery, Plot II, Row L, Grave 6 and he is commemorated on the war memorial at St Catherine’s College, Cambridge.