226700 Pte. William Frank Davies British Army 6th Btn. Queen's Own Royal West Kent Rgt. from:Chepstow (d.17th November 1942) I didn't have the privilege to meet my grandfather, he had been killed in action during the first day of the battle in Djebel Abiod, Tunisia on 17th November 1942. Sadly, my grandmother never really came to terms with her loss and still mourned his death up until the day she died in 1995. Although she wasn't quite like Queen Victoria, cladding herself in black and shutting herself away for years, he was always in her thoughts even though she remarried my wonderful loving Grancher many years after.
From the snippets I have been told as a child, he was quite a character. He was handsome, charming and funny. He liked to box and was a member of the Chepstow boxing club. My grandmother who in her youth was quite a plain Jane, told me that all the girls in Chepstow had an eye for her Bill. He would walk past the shop in which she worked and they would nudge each other and flutter their eyelashes in hope that he would catch their attention! From the photographs I have seen he certainly was a catch, my grandmother, although not a beauty, must have pulled on his heart strings because he was very much in love with the charismatic kind person that she was.
Unfortunately as a child, teenager, then young adult I didn't take too much notice of the stories she would tell me of their life together. I was too young, too busy and my head was full of my own life events, the war was too distant for me to relate to. I used to call it the olden days. As I now pass middle age I reflect back on her words and wish I had listened and had met him. I have a copy of the last letter he wrote, a few days before he died and I wipe a tear from my eye each time I read it. The letter is not expressing the terrible fear, anxiety and horrors he must have been experiencing at the time, instead it is reassuring her that he was ok and she must not worry, of hope, love and optimism. It ends by saying that he is wondering if he has a new son or daughter who has probably arrived by the time she receives the letter and how much he looks forward to them all being together again. My grandfather died four days before the letter arrived back home, he never did get to know he had a son.
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