Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Davies, Charles Maurice
DAVIES, CHARLES MAURICE (1828–1910), author, born in 1828, was of Welsh origin. He entered Durham University as a scholar of University College in 1845, and graduated B.A. in 1848 with a second class in classical and general literature. He proceeded M.A. in 1852 and D.D. in 1864. Elected a fellow of the university on 1 Nov. 1849, he was ordained deacon in 1851 and priest in 1852. After serving various curacies Davies settled down to educational work in London. Meanwhile his religious views underwent a change. Once an active supporter of the tractarian movement, Davies soon adopted broad church principles, and published anonymously a series of sensational novels, attacking high church practices, among them being 'Philip Paternoster' (1858), 'Shadow Land' (1860), and 'Verts, or the Three Creeds' (3 vols. 1876). After holding the headmastership of the West London Collegiate School (1861-8) he devoted himself mainly to journalism. In 1870 he represented the ' Daily Telegraph' in France on the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war, and was arrested as a suspected spy, while he was searching Metz for his colleague, George Augustus Sala [q. v.]. Amongst other contributions to the 'Daily Telegraph' was a series of independent studies of religious parties in the metropolis, which attracted attention. His articles were collected into a volume entitled 'Unorthodox London' (1873; 2nd edit. 1875). There followed on the same lines, 'Heterodox London, or Phases of Free Thought in the Metropolis' (2 vols. 1874), 'Orthodox London, or Phases of Religious Life in the Church of England' (2 vols. 1874-5), and 'Mystic London, or Phases of Occult Life in the Metropolis' (1875). On quitting the service of the 'Daily Telegraph,' Davies went out to Natal to work under Bishop J. W. Colenso [q. v.]. After 1882, however, he abandoned holy orders. On his resettling in London, he was employed after 1893 in superintending a series of translations, undertaken at the instance of Cecil Rhodes [q. v. Suppl. II], of the original authorities used by Gibbon in his 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.' Davies retired from active work in 1901, and died at Harlesden on 6 Sept. 1910.
[The Times, 9 Sept. 1910; Durham University Calendar, 1850; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Sir T. Fuller, Life of Cecil Rhodes, 1910, p. 133 seq.; private information from Mr. A. L. Humphreys.]