Davies, Cliff

Cliff Davies was born September 3, 1927 in Portsmouth, England.  By a strange twist of fate his 12th birthday happened to be the day that WW2 was declared in Great Britain, and it was a birthday that came to be characterized by gas masks and evacuation.  Cliff’s father worked at the Portsmouth shipyards, as did his older brother, and it was assumed that Cliff would work there, but Cliff opted instead for the navy, joining the apprentice program when he was teenager during the war.  He went into the Fleet Air Arm and was trained for an array of tasks, including electronics, engineering and radar.  The war ended when he was 18 and ready to go into regular service, so Cliff did not get to put all his training to use while on combat duty, but he stayed in the navy for many years and was posted to an aircraft carrier in the postwar period.  That ship was sent to the Pacific during the time of the Korean War, stopping at ports-of-call such as Malta and Ceylon during the long journey.  Cliff ended up being assigned to radio duty in Singapore, and he spent four years there before making his own way back to England.  Cliff then spent four years in Northern Ireland – during the “Troubles” – and from there he opted to leave the Fleet Air Arm and Britain, and he made his way to Canada.  He served as a civilian radio employee at Goose Base, Labrador for a time, later making his way south and finding his place in 1960s Canada.  Crestwood students were able to interview Cliff Davies at the Sunnybrook  Veterans’ Wing in December 2022.