Private Frederick William Davey was born Chagford in 1889, the second son of Frederick Davey, a farm labourer, who had married Mary Isabella Coombe.  Frederick’s father came from Coldridge and his wife from Winkleigh, and by 1891 the family was living at Bridge in Bondleigh.  Ten years later the 1901 census records the family, now increased to 5 children, living in a four-roomed cottage at Sedghetts, Winkleigh, in Lowertown.  In spite of these cramped conditions, the family thrived, but between then and the 1911 census they had moved out to Coxes Bridge, Winkleigh.  His older brother Daniel and brother Samuel were both labouring with their father, while Ellen, Thomas, Richard and Bertie were all at school, and Herbert, the youngest, still only 3 years old.  In that census, Frederick William, aged 21, was working as a horseman for Albert Reed at Collecott Farm, Winkleigh.  Two years later, on April 12th 1913, Frederick married Emily Louisa Robins in Winkleigh church, and had their one and only child, Frederick G. soon afterwards.  Emily was born in 1891, a Winkleigh girl, who was the daughter of William Robins, a builder, and was unfortunately born deaf.  She had a brother George and three sisters Mary Ann, Alice J, and Edith.  A wedding photo of Frederick and Emily has survived and has been supplied for the web-site by Roland Davey and his sister Pamela, who are descended from Frederick William’s brother Richard, born in 1903.  This photo shows the whole family including Dan, Frederick and Sam in their uniforms of the 6th Devons, the Territorial Regiment in which all three brothers served before the war.  Safely home after the war, Dan Davey is still well remembered in the village.  A thatcher and a man of many farming skills, he is remembered by Frank Pigeon, then a young lad, as turning up early at Punchedon Farm and drinking a full jug of cider before getting down to work.  Frank was always amused by seeing Dan sucking on his long moustaches afterwards to conserve every drop!  We are not sure what happened to Sam Davey.  His name is not recorded on the Roll of Honour of those who survived, he certainly was not a casualty, and he does not seem to be remembered in the village.  But there he is, at the wedding in 1913.  And it is possible that he went to Canada and fought with the Canadian forces.  There is a further photo of the three eldest brothers, taken at the fortnight’s annual camp of the 6th Devons either in 1913 or earlier.  Taken on Woodbury Common, near Exmouth where the Devon and Cornwall Infantry Brigade practised their drill and manoeuvres each year, the three stand together.  In the background, off duty, a cricket match is being played.  These photographs can be seen by clicking HERE.

      The story of the 6th Devons in the Great War is summarised on another part of this site, as is also the circumstances in which this country found itself at war with Turkey, and details of the campaigns in Gallipoli and Mesopotamia.  It is a common mistake to assume that the campaigns against the Turks - in Gallipoli 1915-1916, Mesopotamia 1914-1918 and Gaza and Palestine 1914-1918 were mere ‘sideshows’ to the main campaigns in France and Flanders.  The history of our Winkleigh men shows the reverse. Of the 26 casualties lost, five died in these campaigns: one in Gallipoli, and 4 in Mesopotamia.  The Territorial and Yeomanry regiments of Devon were heavily involved, as testified by the many local memorials that carry their names.

      Frederick William and his brother Dan were mobilised at once.  The 1914 September issue of the Chumleigh Deanery magazine records with pride they were among the first to serve.  After an initial few weeks in Plymouth followed by a tented camp on Salisbury Plain, by October they were on their way to India, as part of the Wessex Brigade, to ‘replace’ the regular 1st Battalion of the Devons, who had already been brought home, sorely needed in France.  All Territorial units had been invited as early as mid-August to volunteer for overseas service.  Almost to a man the 6th Devons stepped forward, although there some who were refused on medical grounds.  After a protracted voyage and a halt in Aden, the 6th Devons arrived in Bombay and were posted to Lahore.  Here they stayed until December 17th 1915 when orders were received to mobilize for Mesopotamia.

      The Battalion reached Basra on January 3rd 1916, and was immediately destined to take part in the attempt to relieve the town of Kut on the Tigris, which was being besieged by the Turks.  There followed a particularly dreadful march lasting four weeks to the advanced base at Sheikh Saad, and then further up the Tigris to Orah - in all a march of 220 miles up-stream from Basra.  By now many were sick, mainly with dysentery and pneumonia, resulting from the hardships of the march.  On February 22nd the battalion arrived in the reserve trenches at Senna, which they found flooded in a foot of water.  Before Kut could be reached, it was necessary to capture a Turkish strong-point on the left bank, known as the Dujaila Redoubt, to cut off the Turkish troops to the north of it. On March 7th, after a night march, the 6th Devons attacked the Redoubt as the right support battalion.  No progress was made: 9 officers and 44 men were killed, and 181 men were wounded in the action.  All attempts to reach Kut had failed, and on April 29 the garrison finally surrendered.  The 6th Devons then moved into the very trenches they had attacked at Dujaila, finally abandoned by the Turks.  From there it was relieved to do duties on the line of communications, but the heat was appalling.  By October, when the battalion moved back to Amara, it consisted of no more than 9 officers and 276 other ranks.

      These were the events experienced by the Winkleigh men who had sailed for India in October 1914.  For Frederick William Davey, however, and indeed also for his friend Frank Turner, the situation was very different.  Soon after reaching Lahore, small drafts of men from the 4th, 5th and 6th Devons, all members of the Wessex Division, were transferred to join the 2nd Dorsets, a regular army battalion that had been stationed in Poona when the war began, and who had remained in India until they were transferred to Basra in November 1915.  From the 6th Devons two drafts were sent, in May and September, to help replace those Dorset men who had fallen sick during the sweltering Indian summer.  Since arriving in India the 6th Devons had been longing for active service, and when volunteers were called for in May (one officer and 29 men) to transfer to the 2nd Dorsets practically the whole battalion volunteered to go, knowing that the Dorsets, a regular battalion, would be off soon, and possibly to France.  The lucky few selected were certainly the envy of their comrades.

      Frederick William Davey, however, (and indeed Frank Turner as well) then experienced one of the most vile campaigns of the British army in the First World War.  Having landed at Basra in late October 1915, they advanced up river to Kurna, the junction of the Tigris and the Euphrates, the legendry place of the Garden of Eden.  On November 15th the march began up the Tigris to take part in the battle of Ctesiphon, which left a mere 200 survivors from the initial battalion of 1000 Dorset men who went into that action.  The survivors retired to Azizieh where they were reinforced by Hussars and a half-battalion of Royal West Kents.  A further retreat down river took them to Umm al Tubul, where an attack by the Turks was repulsed.  The retreat continued, the whole force reaching Kut on December 3rd. Frederick William Davey had survived so far by a miracle.  However, the siege of Kut became one of the worst disasters of the war, the town finally surrendering on 28th April 1916 despite repeated attempts to relieve the garrison.  Thirteen thousand men now became prisoners of the Turks, and were sent on a death march across the desert to Baghdad and beyond into various prison camps.  Very few survived.  Frederick William Davey reached Baghdad, and indeed he might well have continued on into Anatolia, finally dying from disease or exhaustion or malnutrition either in Baghdad or in a prison camp on August 7th 1916.  Unlike so many of his comrades his body was at least able to be given a war grave, at first in some temporary location.  He was finally re-interred in the Baghdad (North Gate) War Cemetery, which was begun only in 1917 when graves in other burial grounds around Baghdad and as far away as Anatolia were finally cleared.  4,160 casualties are commemorated there by name, together with 2,729 ‘unknowns’.

      A photo of Private Frederick William Davey appeared in the local paper, together with the caption: ‘Pte. Fred Davey, Devons, of Winkleigh, who has died in Mesopotamia.  He was with the Kut garrison which surrendered, and died on the march from Kut to Mosul.’  His memory is still enshrined within the family.

      Louise, a mother and now a war widow, went on to marry Dan Davey, when he returned safely from the war after serving his time in the 6th Devons.  They had three children: Thomas Harry born in 1920, Vera L. born in 1922 tragically to die in a fire at home aged only three, and Wallace born in the summer of 1925.  Today both Dan and Louise lie in the Winkleigh churchyard, and both are still well-remembered by those who knew them in the village.