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Edwin Davis |
Edwin at Christchurch College Oxford |
Edwin (centre) sitting next to Alan Turing |
Edwin Davis (Ted) was born on 8th December 1879 at St Clement's Worcester to Joseph Davis and Susannah nee Holmes. Joseph was a brushmaker, the most common occupation in the Holmes family and its offshoots.
However he seemed to be cout out for something different in life. He was awarded a scholarship to Worcester Grammar School, which he attended at least 1893-1897- and clearly longer. The following was found in The Times, 10th June 1897
Mr Edwin Davis of The Royal Grammar School, Worcester, has been elected to an open scholarship in Mathematics at Christ Church
He was also later awarded a double First Class degree in Mathematics.
Edwin went on to teach mathematics at Sherborne School. He taught Alan Turing mathematics while there. He died on the 12th July 1933 at 20 Devonshire Place London, a nursing home in the Harley Street area.
The following obituary appeared in The Times
MR. EDWIN DAVIS
Mr. Nowell Smith, formerly Headmaster of Sherborne, writes:—
Will you allow me to pay a brief tribute to the memory of Edwin Davis, the
senior mathematics and science master at Sherborne School, who died on July 12
after a short illness, at the age of 53 ? Comparison between teachers of
different subjects is impossible, but I am sure that I have never known a better
teacher than Davis. He was equally good with the scholar just ready for the
university or a high place at Woolwich, for the sturdy athlete who needed to
qualify for Sandhurst, and for the small boy who had just scraped through the
entrance examination. The secret of his success was that he combined one of the
clearest and quickest brains with the most imperturbable patience and good
humour. His discipline was perfect and sought no aid from anything but force of
character: boys could neither fool him nor exasperate him.
No master took a fuller share in the varied life of school. He had remarkable
muscular strength and quickness, and for many years excelled in every sort of
athletic field. A sound musician with a tenor voice, he was the mainstay of the
choral singing, which he could accompany and conduct whenever needed. He was
indispensable for running both the Army class and the O.T.C. during the War,
and, indeed, during his whole career he was the most indispensable member of the
staff for all purposes of organization. Whether for rearranging the time-table,
for adjusting the system of marks, for managing the school shop, for
straightening out any tangle, whether of machinery or temper, every one from the
Headmaster downwards went to “Ben” Davis; and all he gave it the same
quiet and tolerant attention and effective aid.
He was one of those bachelor schoolmasters who wed themselves wholly to their
schools and are content with a life of unremitting but unadvertised service. As
mere eulogy only creates legitimate scepticism, let it be said that he had
faults like the rest of us; but his combination of kindness and humour with
determination and sense of duly, of brain-power with many-sided practical
beneficence, made him a very paragon of that class of men of which perhaps only
headmasters know the full value.