John Davies (businessman) - Illness and Death

Illness and Death

Davies was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour in 1978 and swiftly stood down from the Shadow Cabinet and from Parliament. Davies was granted the position of Steward of the Manor of Northstead on 6 November 1978. In the Queen's birthday honours list of 1979, he was awarded a life peerage, but on 4 July 1979 The London Gazette announced that "Gentle Davies dead" from a relapse before the patent of creation passed the Great Seal. Peerage history was made when, by Royal Warrant bearing the date 27 February 1980, his widow Vera Georgina was granted the style and title of Lady Harding-Davies, Baroness of St. Mellons, indicating the title Davies had intended to take; his children The Hon. Francis William Harding Harding-Davies and The Hon. Rosamond Ann Metherell were given the rank of children of life peers.