Photo of J.H. Davies grave kindly supplied by Matt Smith, Australian War Graves Photographic Archive

John Henry DAVIES was born in Camberwell, London on the 10 December 1882. At the age of 29, mid-way through 1911 he married Louisa Constance BEAVAN, in the parish of West Ham. Louisa had been born and raised in the area, and there she remained, pregnant, in 1913 when John made the trip out to Australia. Joining the Royal Australian Navy on the 2^nd last day of that year, John served as a Petty Officer and was stationed on Cerberus until just after the war broke out.

It appears that he may have been a seafarer long before this because on enlistment he was already adorned with tattoos. One of these depicted the American Eagle supporting the Union Jack & Stars & Stripes, which suggests he may have spent some time in America. With the outbreak of war, John found himself stationed back in London, if only for a short time, but perhaps long enough to see his wife and his new son James, who had been born earlier that year.

He was then transferred to the HMAS Sydney, and according to his records should have been on her during Australia’s first sea battle; the encounter with the SMS Emden. However, he is not listed in the original list of crew, nor the supplementary one that included those who had joined after 30/9/14 & before the battle on the 9/11/14. So, if he hasn’t been mistakenly left off the list, perhaps he hadn’t quite made the connection in time.

After the Emden encounter, the Sydney deposited the survivors aboard other ships at Colombo and then proceeded on to Malta. From here she was sent to patrol around Bermuda until well after John left her for his return to London. While stationed at the London Depot for almost a year, he received promotion to Gunner on the 9^th of March 1916, and also spent time with his family. Once again he left behind a pregnant Louisa, as he embarked overland on the 1^st day of 1917 to join up with the HMAS Brisbane in Malta.

The newly commissioned Brisbane didn’t reach Malta until the 4/2/17, a few weeks after John’s own arrival, and was then transferred to the Indian Ocean to join the hunt for the German raiders Wolf and Seeadler. Following this, she patrolled Australian waters June to September, and later the western Pacific until January 1918, after which she again returned to Australia. At the end of October she set sail for England, and was between Colombo & Aden when the war finished. She then side-tracked for a month spending the time with the Australian Destroyer Flotilla around Turkey, before eventually reaching England in the January of 1919. The following 3 months she was laid up at Portsmouth for a refit, and John again had the chance to see his wife and growing family; his previously unseen daughter Phyllis already a toddler by this stage. On the 17^th April the Brisbane began her return trip to Australian waters, and for the third and last time John left behind a pregnant Louisa.

The Brisbane was still patrolling around Australia on the 1^st of October 1919, when John left her for the depot ship Penguin, which had been berthed at Garden Island since 1909. From here he returned to Cerberus at the beginning of 1920, before finally being transferred to the HMAS Geranium on the 18^th July. The Geranium was one of three ‘flower’ class sloops that had been transferred from the Royal Navy to the RAN in late 1919. (The 3 were also known by the nickname ‘herbaceous border’) Commissioned as the first RAN survey ship in early 1920, Geranium was carrying out survey work in Napier Broome Bay (W.A.), when John went ashore with a few others to shoot kangaroos. He became separated from the party, and an initial search found nothing. The day he went missing was the 1^st of October 1920.

The area known by the aborigines as Pago, was quite isolated except for the Drysdale River Mission Station, which had been established in 1908 by a group of Spanish monks from the Benedictine order, with the intent of bringing Christianity to the local natives. The men from the Geranium managed to secure the services of a ‘black tracker’ from this station, ‘who pursued the tracks of the wandering gunner for over a week, through dense jungle, rocky creeks, and over sandy hills. The tracker was relentless and untiring and the party of armed officers and marines who followed, staggered on with sheer exhaustion, until the tracks of the lost gunner disappeared into the sea. He had apparently lain down by the edge of the water and had been seized by an alligator [crocodile] …………….’

The search was abandoned and the men returned to the ship, which had struck a reef during their absence and needed to find a dry dock for repairs. Before their help had been sort, the inhabitant’s of the mission which was run by Father Sosa, had not seen any other ‘white men’ for several years, and “were greatly interested when told by the sailors that the war had ended in favour of the Allies.”

Three weeks after he went missing, John’s badly mutilated (& half eaten) body was found by natives, in some long grass on the banks of the Drysdale River. He was buried in the Pago Mission Cemetery by the Benedictine monks.

John’s third and final child, a son named after him, would never see his father, and the older two would only have vague memories. It can only be wondered at whether their mother told them the true cause of their father’s unusual death. Louisa applied to the Navy for a War Gratuity, which would have been a single payment made according to specified rates and the length and type of war service. Whether it would have been substantial enough to ensure them any sort of a comfortable future can also only be wondered at.

When the HMAS Geranium returned to Napier Broome Bay the following year to carry out more survey work, they erected a wooden cross over John’s grave. The inscription read: “In memory of Gunner H. Davies, H.M.A.S. Geranium. Died Oct., 1920.” Returning yet again in 1925 it was decided that a more substantial monument should be erected, and in 1926 the wooden cross was replaced with a reinforced concrete cross, inlaid with lead lettering, that had been fashioned by the ship’s artisans.

Today the Mission Station is nothing but ruins. After being abandoned by the monks in 1936, it was apparently used during WW2 as a defence base, which resulted in it being bombed by the Japanese in 1943.

However, the small cemetery can still be found (usually by 4 wheel drive enthusiasts touring the Kimberley), with John’s concrete cross being the only surviving tombstone.

Heather (Frev) Ford, 2009