Albert Alfred Davies
RSL (Port Pirie Sub Branch) Inc.Albert Alfred (Bert) Davies was born in Morphett Vale, South Australia, on the 14th April 1885 to Alfred Herbert and Sophia Davies (nee Smith).
His parents moved to Warnertown, South Australia, the following year where they raised 12 children, all of whom were schooled at Warnertown Public School.
On the 25th August 1915, aged 30 years and 4 months, Bert enlisted with the 12th Reinforcements / 3rd Light Horse Regiment. He had had 3 years’ experience as a member of the Warnertown Defence Rifle Club. He was of a modest and genial disposition and employed as a stamper in Solomontown; probably at Forgan’s Foundry which provided castings for the smelter operations and the war effort.
Bert embarked from Adelaide, South Australia, on board HMAT Geelong (A2) on the 18th November 1915. Shortly after disembarking the men in Egypt, Geelong sank after a collision with SS Bonvilston, an Admiralty store ship, in the Mediterranean Sea near Alexandria, Egypt, on 1 January 1916; fortunately there was no loss of life.
For the first five months of 1916, the 3rd Light Horse Regiment was deployed throughout the Nile valley to defend the Egyptian economic centres from the interruption by the Senussi (a Libyan religious order allied to the Ottoman Empire) infiltrating from Siwa Oasis.
They were then assigned to protect the rail line and lines of communications for the first months of 1917. They missed the First Battle of Gaza but were back at the front by the 6th April 1917 and took part in the Second Battle of Gaza on 19th April 1917.
After the First Battle of Gaza, the Ottoman defences were strongly reinforced against a frontal attack. These proved unassailable during the disastrous frontal attacks, and casualties to the Egyptian Expeditionary Force approached, and in some cases exceeded, 50% for slight gains.
On the 20th April 1917, Bert received gunshot wounds to both legs at Abu Sitta, during the Second Battle of Gaza.
He was transferred to the 14th Australian General Hospital in Cairo, Egypt, where he died of his wounds due to septicaemia on the 25th April 1917 at the age of 32. His younger brother Arthur Herbert Davies was also wounded to both legs in the same fight but made a satisfactory recovery.
Trooper Albert Davies Service Number 1586 was buried in the Cairo War Memorial Cemetery. He is commemorated on the Australian War Memorial, Roll of Honour, the Adelaide National War Memorial, World War 1 Memorial Gates, Port Pirie, the Crystal Brook Warnertown and District World War 1 Honour Board and in the Napperby Memorial Hall.
