Alexander Herbert Davis (1889-1915)
Private 2350, 28th Battalion, London Regiment, Artists Rifles.

Gravestone, a marble scroll on a plinth, [Ch 23 (A), ] near the Anglican Chapel. “Also of Private Alexander Herbert DAVIS (Artist’s Rifles), second son of the above, who died in hospital January 21st 1915, aged 25 years.”

Davis House at St. Bartholomew’s School is named after this ex-student and members of the House are given a page of information about Davis.

Further research confirms many of these details. In the 1901 census A.H Davis is an 11 year old second son, living at 37, Northbrook St. where his father has a Chemist Shop (demolished to make the entrance to the new shopping centre). In the 1911 census he is no longer there, though his older brother, Harold Victor is then 23 working for the father. Where the story diverges from the information provided by the school is that his death certificate says that he died, in London, of coma having had a cerebral abscess for 6 months. He may well have joined the Artists Rifles, which recruited extensively from public schools and universities, whilst living and working in Oxford, before the beginning of the Great War.

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