Derek Rudyard Davis (15 May 1919 – 23 Oct 1941)

Sergeant – Service Number 944253 60th Sqdn. Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

Birmingham Municipal Bank

Derek Rudyard Davis was born on 15th May 1919 to Horace Brandon Davis and Alice Gertrude Endall. In 1939 he was working alongside his father as a Clerk in the Birmingham Municipal Bank. His father was a branch manager.

The Birmingham Municipal Bank was created as the Birmingham Corporation Savings Bank by a 1916 Act of Parliament, to raise money to aid World War 1. It was the only municipal bank in the country. Suggested by local politician Neville Chamberlain in 1915, the bank was originally for savings from earnings, earning interest at 3.5%, with most of the income reserved for the government. It opened on 29 September 1916 after resistance from the banks and the Treasury. In 1919 it changed its name by Act of Parliament and started to created branches.

In 1935, Birmingham Municipal Bank caused controversy in Birmingham and Sutton Coldfield, when they outlined plans to open a branch in the town for the 4,000 residents who had accounts in the bank. Their plans created an outcry from people from the town, who feared that Birmingham was attempting the annexation of Sutton Coldfield. The protest resulted in a heated debate in the city’s council chamber as to whether a written guarantee should be submitted to Sutton Coldfield outlining that they were not annexing the town.

60 Squadron South African Air Force

Like many young men his age, at the outbreak of war Derek enlisted as a volunteer reserve with the Royal Air Force and subsequently was posted to Egypt as part of the 6oth Squadron.

No.60 Squadron, S.A.A.F., was a photographic survey and reconnaissance squadron that operated in East Africa and the Mediterranean.

The squadron was initially equipped with the Avro Anson, which it used to conduct a photographic survey of East Africa. In July 1941 it moved to Egypt, and converted to the Martin Maryland. The new aircraft were used on reconnaissance missions over hostile territory in North Africa and for photographic surveys of Allied areas.

The Squadron diary tells that Derek Davis reported for duty at Fuka Satellite on 13th October 1941.

On 23rd October Derek was part of a crew that was dispatched in Maryland No. AH. 365 to do photographic reconnaissance of the El Micheli area. The plane never returned.

Derek died alongside his crew mates:

Air Corporal Horace Nathaniel Voss Hawke

Major Samuel Barr Ferguson Scott

Sergeant William Virgo

They are commemorated at the Alamein Memorial in Egypt and Derek Rudyard Davis is also commemorated on the village war memorial in Castle Bromwich.

Derek’s will shows that at the time of his death, his home address was The Wakes Way, 127 Old Chester Road, Castle Bromwich.