Henry William Wilson DAVIE

Harry Davie grew up in a Barnstaple family of saddlers. His father, James Headon Davie, ran a business in The Square, following the same trade as Harry’s grandfather. Born Henry William Wilson Davie in the second quarter of 1871, he was the eldest of James and Annie Davie’s five children. Annie’s maiden name was Wilson.

Harry Davie graduated from the Royal Veterinary College on 12 May 1893 and registered as a Member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. He returned to Devon and set up a successful veterinary practice in Crediton. In 1897, he married Mary Elizabeth Copp. They had a son, Thomas, and a daughter, Edith, and the family lived at The Green in Crediton with Mary’s nephew, William Abberley Copp.

Following the outbreak of war, Harry Davie was contracted to provide a veterinary service in Devon to support the Army Remount Service’s purchase of horses. In 1915, he left his veterinary practice when he received an appointment to provide care for mules and horses purchased in North America on the trans-Atlantic crossings.

The British Remount Commission bought horses and mules in Canada and the United States, then moved them by rail to Atlantic ports. Civilian veterinarians such as Davie cared for the animals during the crossing.

Harry Davie had crossed the Atlantic many times as a veterinarian officer. His first journeys were on the converted cattle ship SS Russian , accompanied by a team of horsemen and muleteers and, on occasion, an assistant veterinary surgeon. In early November 1915, Harry Davie was in Newport News, having been appointed as the veterinarian officer for the SS Orthia, which was due to leave the port bound for the United Kingdom with a cargo of horses and mules.

On Wednesday, 10 November 1915, Harry Davie disappeared. When news of his disappearance became known, there was speculation in the press that he had ‘met with foul play’. His family was notified by telegram by the British vice-consul and, as police enquiries were made, ‘wild rumours (sic)…began to go the rounds’.

Two weeks later, on Tuesday, 23 November, his partly decomposed body was found floating in the James River near the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway coal piers at the foot of 18th Street. The body was taken to the morgue of the undertaker William E. Rouse on 25th Street where it was examined at 5.00pm that evening by the coroner, Dr Henry F. James Jr. When no signs of violence were identified, and cash to the value of $24.50 and a valuable watch were found in his clothing, the coroner recorded that: ‘I examined the body of Dr Harry Davey (sic) and the evidence causal to his death showing as accidental drowning on Nov. 23, 1915’. Newspapers suggested that he had fallen from a pier while walking; this was speculation.