Harley Edmund FitzRoy Fox-Davies
Person details
| Forename(s) | Harley Edmund FitzRoy |
|---|---|
| Surname | Fox-Davies |
| Rank | Major |
| Regiment | Durham Light Infantry |
| Age | 34 |
| Death | Missing, killed in action |
| Place of Death | North Africa > Libya |
| Date of Death | 15/05/1941 |
| Year of Entry | 1920 |
| House Letter | B |
| School Notes | - |
| Comments | |
| Commonwealth War Graves Commission Link | https://www.cwgc.org/find-record... |
| Unit | 1st Battalion |
| Prefect | Second Prefect |
| Military Decorations | MC |
| Album Number | 21 |
| Battle | Battle of Halfaya |
| Previous Regiment | |
| Burial or Cemetery | North Africa > Halfaya Sollum |
| Citations | |
| Archives | Correspondence file in OR files in Radley Archives |
| Post School | Sandhurst |
| Prep School | |
| Prisoner of War | |
| Radlein Obituary |
June 15 1941. Recorded as missing November 23 1941. Killed in action in the Middle East. May, 1941. Harley Edmund FitzRoy Fox-Davies, M.C.. Major, Durham Light Infantry (Nugee's, B. 1921-26). Harley Fox-Davies was in every way an outstanding boy at school. He was Second Prefect. Captain of Football, and a member of the 1925 VIII which reached the Final of the Ladies' Plate. He won a Prize Cadetship into Sandhurst, and was an Under Officer on passing out into the Durhams. He became Adjutant of his battalion later, and his professional career was one of great promise. But it is the memory of his personality that we treasure. He had a vigour and intensity of purpose that are given to few boys. Real power of leadership was his to a marked degree, and his enthusiasm was caught by all those over whom he was placed, especially in his own home. Fearless of public opinion. he was equally fearless of physical danger and hardship. A born soldier. he died as he would have wished. but it is sad that the death in action of such men should seem so inevitable. "Fox" will never be forgotten by those who had the privilege of knowing him, for we owed him much as a boy and we owe him more now. March 8 1942. H. E. F.-D. R.S.R writes:- Harley Fox-Davies once said to me that, although stalking game was all very well, nothing could compare with the sport of stalking men. It was to practical soldiering that he devoted his mind, though no one could have had more at heart his regiment and the traditions for which it stood. He was only in the middle twenties when he wrote his book 'Guerilla.' He argued here the case for the sudden surprise attack on the enemy's rear and communications. Though never published this book was, through the faith of his friends, brought to the notice of high authority. One at any rate never lost sight of him and singled him out for special duties in this war. 'Guerilla' was no subaltern's dream as the Germans have shown us on more than one occasion. Thus it was that he found himself, at the age of 33, promoted from captain to acting lieut.-colonel leading a commando. From that he was moved to the job of training Abyssinian patriots. He had been 3 1/2 years abroad and a medical board decided to send him home. He had taken hard knocks before in his career. This one he would not accept. In the words of his colonel: "Fox was boarded home, ran away and joined us. He did very well and is now slightly wounded. We go out on fighting patrols and try, and often succeed in knifing them in their beds. Fox did a very good show. He killed ten, caught three and lost none. I have put him in for the M.C." He was back from his wound very quickly and was killed before Fort Capuzzo in the middle of May. Radley has lost a very brilliant soldier. We did not need the stirring proof he finally gave of his qualities as a regimental officer. What is so hard to bear is the cutting short of a career at the moment when the faith he and his friends had in it was coming to fulfilment. It is the" paper" soldier who impresses the layman and he was in no sense that. No one can now doubt that he had brilliant intuitive powers for leadership in the field. We are left only with our dreams and the memory of a steadfast character who in peace and war met everything with unflinching determination. But what I see in the end is a guileless simplicity which to me was infinitely endearing. |
| Service Number | 39436 |
| Place of Birth |
