W H Davies

William Henry Davies or W. H. Davies (3 July 1871 26 September 1940) was a Welsh poet and writer. Davies spent
a significant part of his life as a tramp or hobo, in the United Kingdom and United States, but became one of the most
popular poets of his time. The principal themes in his work are observations about life's hardships, the ways in which
the human condition is reflected in nature, his own tramping adventures and the various characters he met. Davies is
usually considered one of the Georgian Poets, although much of his work is atypical of the style and themes adopted
by others of the genre.
The son of an iron moulder, Davies was born at 6, Portland Street in the Pillgwenlly district of Newport,
Monmouthshire, Wales, a busy port. He had an older brother, Francis Gomer Boase (who was considered "slow")
and in 1874 his younger sister Matilda was born.
In November 1874, when William was aged three, his father died. The following year his mother Mary Anne Davies
remarried and became Mrs Joseph Hill. She agreed that care of the three children should pass to their paternal
grandparents, Francis and Lydia Davies, who ran the nearby Church House Inn at 14, Portland Street. His
grandfather Francis Boase Davies, originally from Cornwall, had been a sea captain. Davies was related to the
famous British actor Sir Henry Irving (referred to as cousin Brodribb by the family); he later