Frank Davis was born in March 1923 to Frank & Alice Davis (nee Booker) who lived, certainly at the time of his death in 1940, at 6 Parkers Row, Dockhead close to the Most Holy Trinity Church.He was a Scout at the 11th Bermondsey & Rotherhithe (St James) Scout Group based at St James Church on Jamaica Road (now Old Jamaica Road) in Bermondsey, South East London. From around August 1940, Frank volunteered to become an Air Raid Patrol Messenger and worked alongside his father who was a full-time Air Raid warden. Frank had one brother and three sisters with some family still living in South East London.
"Warden Frank James Leopold Davis was just seventeen years old when a bomb hit Holy Trinity Church in Dockhead on Dec 8 1940. Initially he survived the bomb but one of his friends, a fellow messenger, was trapped under the rubble. Fearless Frank rushed back in and managed to save his friend but was himself killed in a further explosion.
Don't forget that Frank is only the best known of the Scouts who were killed in service. There are at least two further Bermondsey Scouts that were killed in 1941 shortly after Frank's award, Scout Harry Hughes (17) and Scout Fricker, not to mention the large numbers who must have been injured.
FRANK DAVIS, BRONZE CROSS
Re: FRANK DAVIS, BRONZE CROSS
There are no local memorials that we know of, but Frank's name is recorded on the roll of honour held by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and in the WW2 Roll of Honour.
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