A plaque commemorating the death of a young Ballarat soldier after the end of the First World War will be the focus of a centenary service this Friday, January 25.
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Francis Gordon Davis was killed when a Leyland motor lorry skidded in Gloucestershire on January 25, 1919. Just 19, Davis and his three brothers had all enlisted in Ballarat.
Military records state Davis ‘died of shock’, but an Australian author living in Britain has discovered what actually happened.
Davis was the only student of the Ballarat Junior Technical School who died during World War One.
The Junior Tech was a division of the Ballarat School of Mines. Over 50 School of Mines students or staff died during the war; in June 1922 Francis’s father Alfred Davis planted a tree in the grounds of the Ballarat Junior Technical School in honour of his son. It was the first of six trees planted in the grounds of the Ballarat School of Mines on Arbor Day 1922.
Around the same time a marble plaque was set into a wall near the new tree. It reads:
This tree was planted Arbor Day, 1922, to the memory of Francis G. Davis, a past student killed on active service, 25.1.1919.
Over the years a garden obscured the plaque; it became more prominent around 2013-4 when Federation University’s head groundsman removed ivy and other messy growth, and did some work pruning and extending the life of the tree. Now it is being assessed for restoration.
According to the university, Francis Gordon Davis was born in Ballarat on 09 August 1899. His father was Alfred Ernest Davis (1858-1933) who was living at North Lodge (the gatehouse of the Botanical Gardens), Wendouree Parade, Ballarat West in 1918. His mother Matilda Rachel Henderson predeceased Francis (1861-1915).
On 12 April 1918 Francis Davis enlisted for service at Laverton, one of a number of former Ballarat School of Mines students who joined the Australian Flying Corps (which became the RAAF). He was 18 years and 8 months old and served as a second class Air Mechanic.
His older brother, Edward had enlisted in the Flying Corps a week earlier. His brother Herbert had enlisted in the AIF in 1915, his eldest brother Ernest in 1916.
RECRUITING. There seems to be likely a continuance of the recruiting revival in Ballarat. Yesterday ten men offered themselves, and six passed the medical test. The successful volunteers were Clifford Longhurst (son of Mr W. E. Longhurst, baker, Mair st); Francis Gordon Davis, of Wendouree parade (this recruit being the fifth son now in the A.I.F.); Charles Potter, of the City Band, who is employed at John Macleod's; Harold Higgins, of Warrenheip (who is the fourth son in the A.I.F.) Charges Henry Wright, of the Gas Company; and J. F. Maughan, engineer's assistant City Hall staff. The recruiting officer, in congratulating these recruits, said he felt their patriotism would assist materially to reawaken public interest in the dire need for reinforcements. Three returned soldiers —W. J. Raine, W. R. Clarke, F. Bibby — also tried, but failed to pass the doctor for re-entry to the A.I.F.; but, determined not to be denied, they passed the home service test, and were supplied with warrants to Melbourne to report for duty.
The Ballarat Evening Echo, April 1918
The number of School of Mines students who have joined the Flying Corps has now risen to 10, viz., L.S. McConchie, H.C. Smith, J.F. Maughan, L.H. Vernon, R.O. Buchanan, F. Davis, C. Cunningham, F.T. Edwards, H.G. Bennett and W.B. Berry. They belong to one unit, and are now in camp at Laverton.
The Courier, June 1918
Francis Davis arrived in England in July 1918 as the war entered its final bloody months. He never saw action, posted to an airfield at Tetbury in Gloucestershire.
According to author Ian Hollingsbee, Francis was killed in an unlucky accident in 1919, when the motor lorry he and over 40 other men were riding skidded on black ice at no more than 4 miles per hour. While very slow, the mass and momentum of the truck threw men out as it skewed sideways, and Francis died almost instantly on the road.
Air-Mechanic William Patrick Milne, the driver of the lorry, said he was not going at a greater speed than four miles an hour. When descending the hill at Barton End the lorry began to skid from side to side of the road owing to the frozen state of the highway. He did all he could to pull it up, and ultimately he turned the front part to the side of the road but the rear part swerved round quickly and gave a jerk. He could not say how many exactly were “on board” the lorry, but some of them – about nine or ten – became alarmed, and either jumped or fell out of the vehicle into the road.
He went round to the rear of the car and saw the deceased lying down in the road quite dead. In reply to the Coroner the witness said the lorry was not intended to carry more than about 40 men, but he was unable to say how many really got on. The trouble was that at the last moment when the lorry had moved off a lot of men would run and jump on. This load, however, would not affect the skidding, because upon an icy road an empty lorry would skid worse than a loaded vehicle. He was quite sure that everything possible was done to prevent an accident.
Air-Mechanic James Waterhouse, who was in the car, said he was an ambulance man and at once went to render first aid, but he found the man quite beyond any help. Captain Thomas Roff Jagger, of the Australian A.M.C., said that the cause of death was shock, following a compound fracture of the left thigh. The leg was nearly severed from the body.
The Gloucester Journal, Saturday February 1,1919
Francis Davis was accorded a full military funeral, firing party, bugler and pallbearers. The coffin was draped in the Union Jack and surmounted in several beautiful wreathes sent from his brother 2/A.M. E.H. Davis (A.F.C Leighterton), officer of the A.F.C. Leighterton, Gloucester, Cadets of A.F.C. and many other personal friends of the deceased.
The "Last Post" was sounded at the graveside, and the Rev. Major K.D. Norman C. of E. A.I.F. officiated. The grave was to be turfed and an oak cross erected by the A.I.F. London. Administrative Headquarters A.I.F. London were represented at the funeral.
The Courier reported the memorial service at the School of Mines for Francis Davis, which was attended by the Chief Secretary for Victoria, the mayor of Ballarat and other dignitaries.
Speaking of the planting of the tree by Mr Davis the Chief Secretary (Mr M. Baird M.L.A.), said he trusted the memory would ever remain green at the school. Had he and others not given their lives nothing that we could have done to-day could have retrieved the time. Australians had indeed done splendidly, but they should take a wider outlook than Australia, and reading the history of the Genoa Conference he had been struck by what had been done...
We should honor such men as he in whose memory that tree was planted, and the schools that sent them out to fight for us. He hoped the empire would always be able to produce such men, so that the Empire would always be able to lead the World's struggle for the benefit of humanity. The last post was then sounded by Mr. H. Green.
The Courier, June 19, 1922
This article relies on the work of Ian Hollingsbee and the resources and research of Clare Gervasoni and Federation University, Ballarat, for which I am grateful.
A memorial service commemorating the centenary of Francis Davis’s death will be held at Federation University on the former School of Mines campus at 1pm on January 25.