The Rushden Echo, 23rd April, 1943, transcribed by Gill Hollis
Family Tradition of Service
Interesting Career of New Vice-Chairman
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Dr. R. W. Davies
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Dr. Reginald Wynard Davies M.B., Ch.B., elected vice-chairman at Wednesday’s meeting of the Rushden Urban Council, came to the position after six years’ experience as a councillor. He has a very interesting personal history and belongs to a family which has served the Empire in many ways.
Fifth son of a country cleric, he was born at Waters Upton, Salop, and educated at Hereford Cathedral School, where he was sergeant-major of the school’s first Cadet Corps, captain of the Association football team and a member of the cricket eleven. He came to Rushden, shortly after qualifying, in January, 1912, as partner to the late Dr. C. R. Owen, whose daughter he married in 1917.
In May, 1915, he was commissioned in the R.A.M.C., becoming captain in December, 1916. His first overseas service was in France, but in 1916 he went to an Indian hospital in Mesopotamia and in 1917 to Egypt. Now he wears uniform again as Major Davies, Medical Officer to the 8th N.N. Battalion Home Guard, to which position he was appointed in June, 1941.
Council Record
Six years ago Dr. Davies was asked by the Rushden Conservatives to stand as a Council candidate in the South Ward, and he was second on the poll. Since then, of course, the war has suspended the triennial elections. The doctor plainly enjoys his Council work, in which he pays little heed to party labels, and he has held the chairmanship of the Health, Highways and Parks and Baths committees.
From 1924 he has been secretary of the St. Mary’s Parochial Church Council and for 21 years he has been Divisional surgeon to the Rushden Division of the St. John Ambulance Brigade. A great lover of the open air, he has been long established in the presidency of the Rushden and district Golf Club, and was secretary for seven years. He has also played lawn tennis.
The doctor is on the Peterborough Diocesan Board of Finance and Maintenance Committee.
Dr. Davies has had important war work to do at the Rushden First Aid Post, where his wife also holds a responsible position. A nurse at a Cambridge Hospital during the last war, Mrs. Davies now goes twice a week to give voluntary help in the casualty ward of Northampton General Hospital. Her mother, now 90 years of age, takes a keen and benevolent interest in the affairs of the town.
Family Service
The only daughter, Miss Mary Davies, has finished at Oxford and is taking her B.A. She has already arranged to become a nurse at Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham.
One of the doctor’s brothers is Admiral A. J. Davies, C.B., leader of more than 20 convoys and recently awarded the K.B.E. Another is Bishop S. H. Davies in charge of a huge diocese in North Australia. The youngest, Mr. Andrew Davies, now a tea planter in India, commanded an Indian regiment in Mesopotamia during the last war, when two brothers Lieut. Walter Davies and Lieut. Herbert Davies, were killed.
The eldest brother, now deceased, was a solicitor and a lieutenant in the Shropshire Regiment. One of the sisters, Miss A. M. Davies, has done many years of voluntary work in the East End of London, and was a nurse in Mesopotamia during the war of 1914-18. The other, Mrs. Robertson, now at Solihull, near Birmingham, was also a Great War nurse.
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