Leslie Davies RIP

Kyt · Jul 19, 2008

Leslie Davies - Telegraph

Leslie Davies, who has died aged 88, won an immediate Military Medal in Normandy during the Second World War, and later spent 29 years as an oilman in Kuwait.

As a sergeant with the 11th Hussars at Villers Boccage in June 1944, he was part of the section dismounted from their armoured cars to stalk a sniper 100 yards away. But after crawling through corn and long grass Davies and a Trooper Brady emerged from a hedge to find themselves amid a German infantry company.

The two Hussars were surrounded, disarmed and sent to the rear. But the moment they were out of sight they overpowered their two guards, and took one back to their troop at the point of his own bayonet.

The captive turned out to be of considerable importance since, as a member of the 304th Panzer Grenadiers, he provided the first evidence that the 2nd Panzer Division had reached the battlefield that morning.

The son of a stretcher bearer who had won an MM on the Somme, Leslie George Davies was born into a South Wales mining family on November 16 1919.

He went to Newbridge School, Monmouthshire, where he worked hard and proved a fine soccer player before leaving at 15 to go down the pit alongside his father. A year later the pit manager gave him a job in the lamp room, and then arranged for him to go the Crumlin mining school once a week.

After volunteering in 1940 Davies was sent to the Hussars in North Africa, where he was immediately drafted into the regimental soccer team and scored three goals.

He went on to serve in Italy and then France (where he was hit in the head by shrapnel) before ending his war on parade in Berlin, where a staff car pulled up directly in front of him. Climbing out, the Allied Supreme Commander offered a genial hand and said: "Eisenhower". "Sergeant Davies," replied the startled Hussar with a salute – much to his sergeant-major's disapproval.

After studying Engineering at Cardiff University Davies joined Kuwait Oil after spotting an advertisement in The Daily Telegraph, with the intention of leaving after a year.

The American drillers at what was the world's biggest field were not very pleased to see the Welshman, but they soon made him welcome when they realised that Les could help them fill in their forms.

The first men to have arrived there had been lodged in tents at first, and water arrived by barge from Basra. But cigars and alcohol were cheap.

There was no income tax, which meant he eventually found himself earning more than the prime minister, and there was plenty of sport and an active social life. One friend he made was the American fire fighter "Red" Adair. They made a striking pair, he with white hair and Adair with red, as their comparatively small figures stood out among the Texan giants who surrounded them.

When Davies found himself sitting on some stairs at a party comparing his life with Nelson Rockefeller, the billionaire concluded that since they both started their days consulting their diaries and making a few phone calls the only real difference was that he wrote cheques which contained more zeros.

Always calm, even when there were blow-outs, Davies steadily worked his way up from drilling engineer to drilling supervisor, department head and general manager.

While insisting that he spoke no Arabic, he could make himself clear enough to errant Kuwaitis when he was cross. Davies, who was appointed OBE in 1973, remained with the company after it was nationalised and stepped down in 1980. After a year's retirement he formed a consultancy to work for Maersk Oil.

Leslie Davies had only one big regret when he died on June 16. He had been offered the chance to do the first test drilling in the North Sea. "It will make you a millionaire or you will get nothing," he was assured. But with his wife Kathleen and their four children to support, he declined to take the risk.
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Antipodean Andy · Jul 20, 2008

A very full life well lived. RIP.

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Leslie Davies RIP

Kyt Άρης

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