William Charles Neate Davies (known as Charles) was born in Walton on 9th March 1892. He was the son of William Parker Davies (born in Chester) and his wife Fanny Elizabeth (nee Neate) who was born in Malmesbury in Wiltshire.
Sadly, William Parker Davies died in 1897 at the age of 38 years, leaving a widow and four children.
In 1901 the family were living in wooden buildings on Moss Brow in Moore. These dwellings had been built for the workers constructing the Manchester Ship Canal. William Charles and his younger brother Sydney and his two sisters Mary and Annie Elizabeth were being cared for by their widowed mother, who also worked as a charwoman and a seamstress. Sydney would also serve in the Great War. William Charles, Sydney and Annie Elizabeth were baptised on 24th January 1904 at Daresbury.
By 1911, Fanny and the two boys and their sister Mary had moved to Factory Yard in Hatton. William Charles, now aged 19 years, was working as a groom.
He was recorded (as Charles Davies) on the Daresbury Roll of Honour in 1915 as having enlisted to serve in the Great War. He served as a private (service number 5545) and later as a sergeant in the Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort’s Own Regiment), in the 10th and 2nd Battalions. Charles fought on the Somme where he was wounded and returned to England to convalesce. He returned to serve and was recorded as an absent voter in Hatton in 1918 and spring 1919. He was awarded the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.
On 29th May 1919 Charles married Bertha Partington, also from Hatton, the older sister of Albert Partington, who had been a fellow soldier. Their daughters Beatrice May and Annie E. were born in 1920 and 1921 respectively and the family settled to live in Factory Yard, where his mother Fanny Elizabeth also still lived.
During the inter-war years Charles worked in the building trade, for Wilkinson’s, at their workshops in Park Lane in Higher Walton. These were workshops serving the Walton Hall estate. He worked there from 1920 until 1941. In the 1939 Register he was recorded as living at Factory Yard.
A keen and very accomplished gardener, he entered his garden at Factory Yard on several occasions for the Hatton Show, which was held at Hatton Hall (now Hatton Hall Farm).He won the Whitley Cup. He was also interested in country pursuits.
Having served his country in the Great War, he went on to serve in World War Two, but did not serve abroad. He was attached to Western Command at Chester and to John Summers steel works at Shotton. In 1943-1944 he was with 30th Field Battery of the Royal Army Service Corps. He was also in the Home Guard.
Charles died in late 1970, a year after Bertha passed away. He was 78 years of age.