Jack Davis

Who was Jack Davis?

John Edward 'Jack' Davis was one of the last surviving British veterans of the First World War and the last of the Kitchener's Volunteers. He died aged 108 after briefly holding the title of Britain's oldest man.

He once made a famous speech about his life:

"I would not agree to participate in any form of warfare again. Wars have proved nothing, other than that everyone emerges from them as a loser in some way or another. I joined up in 1914, aged 19, in response to Lord Kitchener's appeal for 100,000 volunteers. My friends and I thought it would offer a welcome change to our normal lives. We were excited by the prospect of going to war - but we didn't know what we were getting into.

When my regiment first saw action, we found it wasn't anything like we were expecting. Where I was - the Ypres Salient in Belgium - there was no drainage at the Front. For the most part you were up to your thighs in water or mud. You can't be an effective fighting force slopping about like that. Soon we suffered the great discomfort and humiliation of becoming lice-bound and having rats running over us. We were forced to take rest wherever we could, without even taking our clothes off. Normally we slept through sheer exhaustion.