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Park of peace
T B Davis: A great man of the sea has left his mark in many ways
A FLOWER garden, playground, concert hall and sun-trap, Howard Davis Park is the one slice of quiet greenery in the Island’s traffic-filled town centre.
It sits in the centre of a ring of major roads, but once inside, there is nothing to suggest that you are not in the middle of a country parish. It also sits at the heart of the story of a remarkable Jerseyman, a man whose rise from humble beginnings to great riches encompassed both triumph and tragedy.
The park was once a huge mansion surrounded by ten acres of grounds. The home of Sir Bertram Falle, it was put on the market for £25,000 in 1937 and its transformation began when Jerseyman Thomas Benjamin Davis shook hands on the deal as his latest purchase.
Davis was born the son of ship’s carpenter Thomas Davis and his wife Jemima Vickers on 25 April 1867. The family lived at Havre des Pas and in his youth Davis was a choirboy at St Luke’s Church. When he was 14 he went to sea as an apprentice on a boat belonging to one of his neighbours. But he had got no further than Norfolk when the ship was grounded in bad weather. In an attempt to save the ship’s papers and valuables, Davis was put into a rowing boat – but was cast adrift in the North Sea when the rope holding it to the ship snapped in rough weather.
The young sailor was saved when a Norwegian vessel picked him up and took him to the Isle of Wight, but by the time he got back to Jersey aboard the Channel Islands mail boat everyone had presumed him drowned. Rumour has it that when he arrived back in the Island he walked into church to find his own memorial service taking place.
This did not put Davis off his earlier ambitions, however, and he returned to life as a seaman. At 30 he served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and in 1899 moved to South Africa, where he settled in Port Elizabeth and purchased a wharfinger business. But in 1916 his son, Howard Leopold, was killed during the Battle of the Somme.
It was in memory of Howard that Davis made his Jersey benefactions.
In November 1927 the States of Jersey accepted a house, farm buildings and some 40 vergées of land near Trinity Church as a gift from Davis which up until then had been known as Parkfield. The bequest was made on the understanding that the Howard Davis Farm should be used for the study of agriculture. Today it houses the Jersey Agricultural Department’s headquarters.
On 23 July 1935 the Prince of Wales came to the Island to open the Howard Davis Hall at Victoria College. Funded by Davis, it was made from Ouaisné granite and matched the gothic style of the other college buildings. Then, in 1939, Howard Davis Park itself was opened with a statue of Davis’s friend, King George V, erected near the main gates.
However, Davis’s love was always sailing, which came in the form of the schooner Westward, which he bought in 1924. It was designed and built for speed and between the two world wars Davis won many great races standing at the helm of his yacht.
But in 1935, following the death of the King, Davis more or less gave up racing: he had a motor fitted in Westward and really only used her only for cruising.
Thomas Benjamin Davis died in South Africa in 1942, and although his family tried to find a new owner for the Westward, no one could afford to maintain her. She was eventually scuttled in the Hurd Deep off Alderney at a memorial service on 15 July 1947.
And today, the flagstaff in Howard Davis Park is all that remains of Davis’s beloved racing yacht.
author -
Anna Heuston
This article updated: 2004/02/24 12:19:56
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| ......timelines...... |
| The Iron Age Celts who first came to the island almost 3,000 years ago left hoards of coins which feature stylised heads and horse motifs. |
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