Anybody able to fill in some of the War details of the following great sportsman. David Davies was born in Llaneli in 1880 and died in Manchester in June, 1944. He played rugby union for Llanelli, rugby league for Swinton and Leigh, soccer for Bolton Wanderers and Wales. During WW1 he served with the 2nd Salfrod battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers. His sporting career started with his home town rugby union club, Llanelli, where he was arguably the best uncapped half-back in the country. He was part of the Llanelli side that lost only once in 31 matches in the 1896/97 season. The team was captained by Owen Badger, who then went 'North' to join Swinton for £75 down and £2 6s per week. Davies scored a try in the win over Newport in February, 1897 that was described by the Daily Chronicle as being for "the club championship of the United Kingdom". Davies joined Badger in moving to Rugby League, although more by luck than judgement. The Swinton club secretary, JW Scholes, went to Llaneli to try to encourage the disenchanted Badger to return to the club. He saw Davies play and singed him on. Davies signed the forms in a Llanelli shop window and received £5 then and a further £15 on arrival in Swinton. He played for Swinton between 1898-1902 before changing codes again - this time joining Bolton Wanderers. Even though he had previously only seen one soccer match before, and had never handled an association football, he signed on as a goalkeeper. At 5ft 10 in tall, and weighing 12st 2lbs, he certainly had the frame for the position. He was with Bolton between 1902-1910, playing in 123 league matches. The pinnacle of his success was probably playing in the 1904 FA Cup final against Manchester City at Crystal Palace. In front of 61,374 fans he was beaten by fellow Welshman Billy Meredith, who scored the only goal of the game. Manchester City were a First Division side, while Bolton finished seventh in the Second Division that season. That was his second major sporting final, because he helped Swinton win the Rugby League Challenge Cup in 1900, when they beat Salford 16-8 in Manchester in front of a crowd of 17,864. Davies scored one of the tries on that occasion. He rejoined Swinton in 1910 and played for another three years. In 1910, he made his Wales RL debut against England at Coventry - a game which England won 39-13. He joined his brother, DB 'Dan' Davies in that side. He also played at Swinton. That wasn't, however, his first international honour. He made three appearances for the Welsh football team during his time with Bolton. He played against Scotland and Ireland in 1904 and came on as a discretionary substitute in the 1908 game against England. FROM THE SWINTON LIONS RLC SITE A superstar of his era, Davies was an 18 year old Welsh international Rugby Union reserve when he came North to Swinton in early 1899. Davies apparently signed a hastily drawn-up contract on a shop window for a down-payment of £5, with a further £15 awaiting him at Swinton. He made a his debut in a success at Widnes on 3rd April 1899 and quickly formed the most potent half-back combination in the Northern Union alongside Joey Morgan. This was never more apparent that when the pair helped destroy Salford in the 1900 Challenge Cup Final with Davies a try-scorer. In season 1900/01 he appeared on three successful occasions for his adopted county, Lancashire, and even grabbed a try against Cheshire. Sadly though, by 1902 Swinton's finances were precarious and this necessitated the transfer of Davies who curiously joined Bolton Wanderers as a goalkeeper. He even reached the FA Cup Final with Bolton in 1904, although the game was lost 1-0 to Manchester City. However, Davies remains to this day, the only man who has played in both an FA and Challenge Cup Final. The prodigal son returned to Chorley Road at Christmas 1909 and he enjoyed a further four seasons with the Lions. During this period he gained an international cap when Wales were defeated by England at Coventry on 10th December 1910 and he also skippered Swinton in 1910 Lancashire Cup Final which was lost 4-3 to Oldham. He retired at the age of 33, but was later grealty effective at organising sporting activities for the 'Swinton Pals' at their First World War training camp in North Wales. After the war Davies assisted the Swinton Park amateur club for a while.
The 'Swinton Pals' were the 19th Lancashire Fusiliers .... I've found 3 MIC's for David Davies in the Lancashire Fusiliers .... you wouldn't happen to have any other personal details would you ? Annie
I think there were two Swinton Pals. The 1st Swinton Pals was "E" company of the 16th Lancashire Fusiliers and the the 2nd Swinton Pals was "C" company of the 19th Lancashire Fusiliers plus the 20th Lancashire Fusiliers was largely a Swinton Battalion consisting of bantams from the local Pendlebury and Clifton coal mines. The two Swinton Pals trained at Morfa in North Wales and took part with their comrades from Eccles and Salford on the first day of the battle of the Somme. Dai Davies spent time in a French hospital due to an illness unrelated to the fighting and his brother Dan was discharged due to bronchitis contracted in the trenches. In total, 40 Swinton RLFC players enlisted and 13 did not return (the number in a rugby league team, known at the time as Northern Union).
