FREDERICK JAMES DAVIES
There are very few civilians whose names appears on the Guildhall Cenotaph and most of those who are so named were Admiralty employees working in HM Dockyard. One of them was Frederick James Davies (also variously referred to as James Frederick Davies).
Frederick James followed his father James and took an apprenticeship as a shipwright. His father had been born at Flushing in Cornwall in 1864 and probably came to Portsmouth in the 1880s in order to follow his chosen trade. Soon after arriving he married Clara Melson who had been born in Hampshire in 1867. They set up home at 97 Toronto Road in Buckland where they began a family which eventually consisted of five children, the eldest of which was Frederick James who was born in 1890.
Frederick James (as he was named in the 1911 census) attended the Higher Grade School on Victoria Road North for a year from 1902 after which he qualified for a place as Shipwright Apprentice in H.M. Dockyard. After qualification he remained as a shipwright in the Dockyard until the outbreak of the Great War.
Shortly afterwards it was decided that the shore based training ship HMS Fisgard II would be sent to Scapa Flow and Frederick James volunteered for service aboard her. This ship, which had formerly been HMS Invincible, had been a training vessel moored in Portsmouth harbour since 1906. Before it's removal to Scapa Flow it's engine's were removed which meant it had to be towed north by the tugs Danube and Southampton. On 17th Septemebr 1914 she was 5 miles off Portland when she sank. 21 of her crew of 64, including Frederick James Davies, were lost.
Further Information
The photograph and some of the information above is taken from a memorial booklet published by Southern Grammar School.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) website lists Shipwright Frederick James Davies, Admiralty Civilian, HM Dockyard, HMS Fisgard II, date of death, 17/09/1914, remembered on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial (Panel 7).
Frederick Davies is remembered on the Southern Grammar School WW1 Memorial (as 'James Frederick') and on the Cenotaph (as 'JF'). He is not listed in the 'National Roll of the Great War'