838464 Pte. John Davy was born on April 28th, 1886, in Ilford, Essex, England, the fourth child of six to William and Mary Davy.
John, growing up in Ilford, was a plumber by trade at the age of 16 and a fitter in engineering by the time he was 25.
Still single, John left England, from Liverpool aboard the Corsican on April 5th, 1912, bound for Halifax. John married Harriet Coss before war was declared and was working as a gas meter reader in Owen Sound, Ontario, when hostilities broke out.
John enlisted with the 147th Battalion on November 27th, 1916, stating his birth year as earlier, in 1884, and that he had served five years with the Essex Regiment and a little over three years with the Royal Engineers. Possible if he was born in 1884, a stretch if born in 1886. Regardless, John was assigned to "C" Company, where he obtained the rank of Corporal.
Billeted locally over the winter the 147th Battalion mobilized in Owen Sound in the spring of 1916 and left for training at Camp Niagara. As the conditions in the Camp were wanting the unit moved to the new training facility of Camp Borden in late June. In September the unit received their orders to proceed overseas, but due to an outbreak of diphtheria they were detained in Amherst, Nova Scotia, for over a month. The unit finally sailed for Great Britain, on November 14th 1916 aboard the Olympic, a sister ship to the ill-fated Titanic.
On January 1st, 1917, the 147th Battalion ceased to exist when it became the nucleus for the 8th Reserve Battalion, whose task it was to supply reinforcements to the 58th Battalion and the 4th C.M.R.
On November 9th 1917, John, having relinquished his rank as Corporal, was taken on strength of the 4th C.M.R. as a Private, in a reinforcement draft, and joined his new regiment in the field during a period of time following the Battle of Passchendaele, whilst they were providing heavy labour working parties rebuilding roads under heavy fire near Sint-Jin, north-east of Ypres.
Private John Davy served with the 4th C.M.R. for the remainder of the war without notable incident and was struck off strength on April 1st, 1919.
Biography credit: George Auer
Family background details: David Kavanagh