David James Davies - World Traveller

World Traveller

In 1912 Davies emigrated to Canada and then to the United States where he worked in mines. Davies was a co-founder of the Northwestern Coal and Coke Company in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. "A colourful figure," wrote professor John Davies, D.J. Davies traveled throughout the United States, became a boxer, attended Colorado State University - Pueblo, and then studied law at Seattle University in Washington.

Following his studies, Davies travelled to Asia, spending time in Japan and China before returning to the US and joining the United States Navy as an engineer and pilot in 1918. Davies' membership in the US military, rather than the British military, was "a protest against the class bound attitudes of the officers of the British Army," according to professor John Davies.

While on leave from the US Navy in 1919, Davies returned to Wales and worked as a collier in Llandybïe, until he was seriously injured in an accident. By 1920 Davies was discharged from the US Navy following his incapacitation the following year.