DAVIES, Aldborough Henry ‘Ally' (1882-1916)
Born on 9 March 1882, the son of Aldborough J Davies and Maria, nee Botterill, he attended Fremantle School, WA, before his admission to Geelong College in February 1895. At College he was enrolled as Oldborough. He went on to Geelong Grammar School on 15 October 1896 where he matriculated in May 1900, leaving school later that year. After reading Law, he was articled to a firm of solicitors in Perth before admission to the practice in 1910.
He went to England to enlist in April 1915 gaining a commission in the Royal Field Artillery (RFA). He went to the Mediterranean with the British Expeditionary Forces, serving on Gallipoli and was subsequently evacuated from Helles. On 17 April 1916 Second Lieutenant Davies was shot by a sniper while observing for his battery in the Tigris area of Mesopotamia. He has no known grave, but his name is commemorated on the Basra Memorial.
Until 1997 the Basra Memorial was located on the main quay of the naval dockyard at Maqil, on the west bank of the Shatt-al-Arab, about eight kilometres north of Basra. Because of the sensitivity of the site, the Memorial was moved by presidential decree. The move, carried out by the authorities in Iraq, involved a considerable amount of manpower, transport costs and sheer engineering. The Memorial has been re-erected in its entirety and is now located thirty-two kilometres along the road to Nasiriyah, in the middle of what was a major battleground during the first Gulf War.
Davies lost two cousins during the Great War, the Botterill brothers, both Old Geelong Grammarians: Cadet Charles Russell Botterill, who died on 12 May 1916 of pneumonia while with the Officers' Training Corps at St John's Wood, London; and Private John Brown Broughton 'Jack' Botterill, who died of pneumonia three days after the signing of the Armistice at 58th Casualty Clearing Station. Charles was buried at Hampstead Cemetery, London, Grave Q.II.33, and Jack at Tincourt New British Cemetery, Belgium, Grave VI.D.ll.
A death notice appeared in the Western Mail newspaper.
Davies, Aldborough Henry Davies, 2nd Lieutenant, Royal Field Artillery (late of Wagin, W.A.), died of wounds received in the Tigris line, Mesopotamia, on April 18, 1916. Aged 34 years. Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.
His death was not listed on the World War I Geelong College Memorial Tablet.
His brother, Roland Botteril Davies (1884-1958), also attended Geelong College.
Sources: Western Mail 5 May 1916 p30; 'Geelong Collegians at the Great War' compiled by James Affleck p27 (citing Justin Corfield and Michael Collins Persse, 'Geelong Grammarians: A Biographical Register', Vol. 1; Commonwealth War Graves Commission).