Lieutenant RNVR Roger ('Sparks') Davies RNVR

© Peter Hore 882 words Roger Davies, who has died aged 100, was a ‘sparks’ who served under the Red, Blue and White Ensigns,  and became a knight of the Order of St Lazarus of Jerusalem.  In 1940 Davies volunteered for special service without knowing what was involved and found himself as second radio officer of a 5,000 ton former Booth lines cargo steamer who had been taken up from trade by the Admiralty as HMS Crispin. Officially she was an ocean boarding vessel, but in practice she was a Q-ship or ‘special anti-aircraft ship’ armed with two 6-inch guns and several 20mm guns: her role was to straggle behind Atlantic convoys and to lure long-range German reconnaissance planes within shooting range.  Crispin was 400 miles to the westward of the Bloody Foreland, Ireland when shortly before midnight on February 3, 1941 she was torpedoed. One of the gun’s crews, George Woodley, recalled that Crispin stopped and wallowed helplessly, the lights went out, and, as she  lolled in heavy seas, empty barrels, which she was carrying in the hold for buoyancy, rolled like thunder.  In one  over-crowded 32-foot lifeboat  which was launched with a splash on the crest of a wave, there were some 50 men. They struggled to clear Crispin’s side, pulling three men to an oar to keep bows-on to the seas.  As waves broke over the boat and threatened to founder her, the coxswain called the stroke and the crew replied in unison. All were desperate, wet, cold and very frightened, while Davies gave reassurances that ‘every ship in the Atlantic knows that the Crispin is in distress and help is imminent’.   Woodley recollected: ‘It was a moonless night and the gale continued to rise. One moment we would be on the crest of a wave and the next moment 30’ to 50’ down in the trough. We were tired, but continued to row, it kept us warm … Just before 0600 hours a destroyer appeared and circled to give us a lee and we came alongside …  Our saviour was HMS Harvester.’   Among the 120 survivors, Davies was one of the few officers.   Roger Paul Gordon Davies was born in Twickenham in the closing months of the Great War: his grandfather was Sir Horatio David Davies, Lord Mayor of London, owner of Pimms, and of a chain of oyster bars in the City of London.   Prewar Davies took the Post Master General’s examination for wireless operator intending to see the world for two or three years before settling down. The outbreak of war found him as second radio officer in a tramp ship, working a ‘cat’s whisker’ crystal-operated wireless.  His next ship had a valve-operated wireless, but fears that radiation could be detected by U-boats led to listening watches being discontinued and Davies instead kept watches on the bridge.  His third ship was a collier in the North Sea where risked German E-boats and dive-bombers by day and, on nights in harbour, bombing and the wrath of the landlord of the public house in Seaham, Durham, relieved only by the affections of the landlord’s daughter. On most southbound trips a cask of lobsters and crab would arrive for Davies, and as one of the gunners was a former chef at the Ritz, ‘she was a wonderful ship for food’.     After the sinking of Crispin, Davies joined the armed merchant cruiser HMS Cathay, before returning to the Merchant Navy, serving in the British Tanker and with British India companies in the Indian Ocean and the Far East,   Postwar Davies fell in love with Malta and, on a whim, in the 1950s bought a plot of land at Madliena.  He attempted to ‘swallow the anchor’ and was selling life assurance and second-hand cars in Sussex, when he met Pam Maude at Bexhill sailing club and they married in 1959.    Davies joined the Royal Fleet Auxiliary where he served worldwide for the next 33 years, and, from 1966 onwards, his second home was the ocean-going tug Sea Salvor based on Malta.   In 1971 the Davies moved into the new-built Villa Ropasian, Madliena, he retired from the RFA in 1975, and for the next twenty years he and Pam travelled the world on cruise liners until her premature death in 1991.  Davies continued to travel alone until the late 1990s when he met Sarah Pienaar, and they became very close.  He travelled until he was 97. Sailing was a major recreation, he was on the race committee of the Middle Sea Race (round Sicily) for many years, and a member of the Ghadira and Vikings (sic) sailing clubs, owning the small sloop Pepita and a Calypso called Cisk. Other hobbies were photography and sportscars.   Davies was committed to every aspect of Maltese life and in 2004 readily accepted an invitation to join the Military and Hospitaller Order of St Lazarus of Jerusalem, in the ecumenical and international jurisdiction of the Grand Commandery of the Castello.  In 2010 he rose to the rank of knight of grace, or chevalier, and in 2012 he was awarded the Order’s bronze cross for his positivity and his loyal and meritorious service.   Davies is survived by two sons: he buried at sea off Malta, his home for more than half his life Roger Davies, born February 13, 1918, died February 21, 2018.