Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Davis, Henry George
DAVIS, HENRY GEORGE (1830–1857), topographer, born on 14 Aug. 1830 at 4 Mills Buildings, Knightsbridge, was the son of J. Davis, master of St. Paul's parochial schools, Knightsbridge. He was educated at the Philological School in the Marylebone Road; became a writer for the local journal, the ‘West Middlesex Advertiser,’ to which he contributed a series of articles on ‘Our Local Associations;’ and prepared for the press ‘Memorials of the Hamlet of Knightsbridge, with Notices of its immediate Neighbourhood.’ This was published in 1859, two years after his death, by his brother, C. Davis. Two other works by Davis were left in manuscript unfinished, namely ‘Pimlico’ and ‘Recollections of Piccadilly.’ He bequeathed his collections to the London and Middlesex Archæological Society. Many antiquarian papers written by him will be found in ‘Notes and Queries.’ He suffered all his life from chronic pleurisy, caused by the carelessness of his nurse in his infancy, and died on 30 Dec. 1857.
[Gent. Mag. 1859, vi. 327; Preface by C. Davis to Memorials of Knightsbridge.]