1911 Census Look Up Please - DAVIS

[Suemc]

Hello Ballance! I am Sue - the original poster of this query way back in 2012! Hello Colonel25 - nice to 'see' you again! Ballance - my mom is Estelle Davis - she is the grand niece of Richard Hermann Davis. Her grandfather was Harry Joshua Davis, brother to Richard Hermann Davis. My mom was born in South Africa and there are some Davis family there but Lena did not end up in South Africa. Lena lived to be 100 and died in Manchester in 2011. I am in contact with one of her descendants which is how I found that info. Harry Joshua Davis did go to South Africa at the time of the Boer War and stayed there as part of the British South Africa force which is where he met my great grandmother. He was a bit of a scoundrel apparently and they eventually divorced (we think) and disappeared. Joshua Davis had 2 daughters too - Florence Helena Davis and Charlotte Lillie Davis (she went by Lilly on the various census) - perhaps that is where the names Florence and Lillian come from? I have also wanted to find more info on Helena Schmidt Davis but so far have not had any luck. I have to run out this morning but I will be back later and add more info.

[colonel25]

Hi Sue, nice to hear from you again. Thanks for the info which is as usual very helpful.

[Ballance]

Hello Ballance, My wife's great grandfather is also Richard Hermann Davis. Her grandfather - Richard Bryne Davis is your stepbrother. His mother was Mary E Lewis. My research shows that your were born in 1945 but that you have a brother Roy born in 1928. Is this possible. Also Richard and Mary had four children but I do not have Harry. I have Florence Lillian Davis born 1910 instead. Unfortunately I don't have much information on Helena Schmidt only that her father may have been Klaus Schmidt born in Germany in 1830 no town given I'm afraid.

This is all I can tell you about WW1 - I have his service medal with the name Richard Davis on the edge, had he put down Hermann as well, I was told that he would have been interned most probably.
I don't think he was too happy about being part German - maybe this is why his Mother seems to have faded into obscurity. It reads on the Victory medal '4430 SPR. R. Davis. RE - he was in the Royal Engineers and I believe through this became a tunneller, which it is said was the most isolating and dangerous position. (This might explain his disagreeable temperament.)
He was in the Corps of Royal Engineers, 175 Tunnelling Company.

I don't know who that other person you mention could have been, living with Richard and Ellen, because my Mother only looked after his four children, the ones I mentioned previously. She never mentioned any other child. Maybe it could have been another relative of some sort?
I remember well when my Father died, I used to sit on his sickbed at home and sing to him. By then the giant of a man (he was physically strong and very tall, with a moustache and piercing eyes, but always with a stern unsmiling demeanour,) had become a lot gentler. He did not fight the illness, but almost gave in right away.
Before he came home to die, he was in a hospital, and he would watch the ward door always hoping one of his four children would visit. But, because of his behaviour with them, none of them ever visited him. I guess that is understandable given their harsh childhood. I know that none of my friends would ever come to the house because they were frightened of him, and he had nothing to do with neighbours or my Mother''s relatives - they all kept away.
He was supposed to have been mentioned in the London Gazette despatches, but I have never been able to track the page down. It was in 1916.
I think when he was with the Tunnellers, he was in Hooge in Flanders.
I remember photographs of him on a Norton bike, with a sidecar for Mother, but I no longer even have one photograph to cherish. Obviously, because I knew him as a sick and dying man, my memories are fond memories. I never acknowledged what anybody else said about him.
I know that we owned our house and also a little land next to it (probably because of money from his Father?) and he was never in paid employment during my childhood, so must have been able to manage financially.
You could always try find out more about his service record, whether he had a pension or received other medals by, searching through:
www.forces-war-records.co.uk
The Tunnellers websites.
The London Gazette, pages about WW1.
It all takes a lot of time and I don't have the time to spare.
Well, thank you for your messages and good hunting. Do let me know if you find out anything further about my Father, or his parents.
Thank you.

[Ballance]

Hello suemc, so glad to hear from you too. I have put a lot of information down for the Colonel, and just posted it, maybe you will find it interesting too.
Yes, I would be glad to see any of your information in the future. My Father never mentioned a brother, so he must have cut himself off from him, and anyone else. He was a real loner of a man. Though to have fought in WW1 he must have had considerable bravery too. . It would be interesting to find out more about my grandmother Helena Schmidt, who I was named for. I remember a photograph of her in a cafe, in Munich or Hamburg (I cannot remember which,) and wish I still had that. Good hunting.