Lieutenant Commander Edward M. ‘Ted’ Davis CD RCN
Died 27 November 2017 aged 96.
Ted joined the Service in February 1942 as a Naval Airman, was appointed to No. 38 Pilot’s Course at St. Vincent followed by flying training at 14 EFTS Elmdon and then at 31 SFTS Kingston, Ontario. After operational training on Barracudas at Crail he was appointed to 810 Squadron at Machrihanish.
From early December 1943 until November of the following year 810 Squadron served in ILLUSTRIOUS with the East Indies Fleet. During that time it was engaged in reconnaissance sweeps in the Bay of Bengal and took part in bombing attacks on Japanese installations at Sabang in Northern Sumatra and at Port Blair in the Andaman Islands. At the beginning of November 1944 the squadron was replaced by Avengers, the Barracudas were placed in storage at Coimbatore and personnel returned to England. Here the squadron was disbanded and was to re-group in mid-December.
Following foreign service leave at home in Canada, he was returning to the UK to rejoin the squadron when the minesweeper HMCS GUYSBOROUGH in which he was taking passage was torpedoed and sunk in the Bay of Biscay on 17 March 1945. During the 19 hours in which the survivors clung to the Carley floats, 53 of the 90 men aboard died, a few of injuries but most due to exposure. The remainder were picked up by two RN frigates dispatched to the scene and were brought in to Plymouth. Subsequent hospitalisation and convalescence lasted for more than three months before he was fit to resume flying duties, and by this time VE Day had come and gone and VJ Day was fast approaching.
He was sent to Easthaven for DLCO training in preparation for that role aboard Canada’s first Light Fleet carrier, WARRIOR. He joined the ship prior to her commissioning in January 1946 and stayed on as DLCO and Assistant Flight Deck Officer for the next year and a half. In January 1947 he was accepted into the permanent force.
The next four years were taken up mainly with staff appointments at National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa, and then in June 1951 he was placed in command of 880 Squadron (Avengers) at Shearwater, Nova Scotia, and at Summerside, Prince Edward Island. He held this post until March 1954 during which time he had been promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. He then flew with VX-1, a USN squadron based at Key West, Florida, which tested and developed weapons for anti-submarine warfare. After a year and a half in this appointment he returned to Canada for further staff duties.
From 1957 to 1959 he served as Executive Officer in two Tribal Class destroyers, HMCS IROQUOIS and HMCS HURON, and finally, in November 1960, retired at his own request.
Since 1977 he had been a volunteer worker with the Canadian Red Cross Society and in 2002 was awarded the Order of Red Cross for his commitment and contribution to the Society. He retired from the Red Cross in January 2010, having served for 32 years.
He is survived by his son Tony, daughter Lynne, and four grandchildren.
Lynne F. Davis