In December 1930 more than 200 men retired from the Great Western Railway Works, an event of such importance to warrant a detailed article in the first January edition of the North Wilts Herald published in 1931.
The names and addresses of those men forced to retire under the introduction of the 66 years age limit were recorded in appreciation of their long years employed in the Works. Men who had joined the company in the 1880s and 90s; men like Harry James Davis.
Harry James Davis was born in 1869, the eldest of Harry Edward and Louisa Elizabeth Davis’s 13 children. The family moved to Swindon when Harry was a baby and he grew up in the railway village.
Harry began a 7 year engine turning apprenticeship on his 14th birthday, October 16, 1883. Like all the apprentices at that time he started on a daily rate of 10d rising to 3/- in 1890 at the end of his apprenticeship.
He married Rose Ann Gibson at St. Mark’s Church on July 16, 1894 and the couple had two sons, Harry John and Cyril George. By the time of the 1901 census they were living at 118 Dean Street, which would remain their home until Harry’s retirement in 1931. By 1939 he was living at 94 Manchester Road and at the time of his death in 1954 he was living at 64 Beckhampton Street.
Mr Harry James Davis: Chargeman fitter of 118, Dean Street, served practically the whole of his 48 years in G Shop. He had charge of the work in connection with Didcot Provender Stores, and also hydraulic work from Swansea and Cardiff Docks.
For the last seven years he was in charge of the Central Boiler Station, and during that period he saw the whole of the loco type boilers for stationary purposes done away with and the latest mechanical chain grates and pulverised coal plants substituted.
Mr Davis belongs to a well known musical family and in his young days helped to start the Blue Band, now defunct. He began his schooling in one of the GWR cottages in Bath street. The central boiler staff presented him with a wallet of notes and a box of cigars.
Swindon Veterans of Industry – North Wilts Herald, Friday, January 2, 1931.
The grave of Harry James Davis and his wife, son and daughter-in-law.
Harry James Davis’s grave in the foreground. His parents are buried in the plot with the pink granite kerbstone surround close to the path.
Harry James Davis died in 1954 and was buried in grave plot D75A, just a stone’s throw from his parents. He is buried with his wife Rose Ann who died in 1930, his son Harry John Davis who died in 1961 and his wife Gwendoline Sarah Katherine Davis who died in 1972.
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Harry Edward Davis – 115 Dean Street
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