Francis Davies (British Army officer)

General Sir Francis John Davies KCB, KCMG, KCVO (1864–1948) was a senior British Army officer who commanded the 8th Division during the First World War.

Davies was commissioned into the Worcestershire Militia in 1881. He transferred to the Grenadier Guards in 1884 becoming Adjutant to the 2 Bn Grenadier Guards in 1893. In 1897 he was posted to South Africa where he became Deputy Assistant Adjutant General for the Cape of Good Hope in 1897. He served in the Second Boer War as Deputy Assistant Adjutant General responsible for Intelligence at Army Headquarters in South Africa. He was appointed acting Commissioner of Police for Johannesburg in 1900.

He returned to the United Kingdom in 1902 and became Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General at the War Office in 1902 and Assistant Director of Military Operations in 1904. He was the British delegate to the International Conference on Wireless Telegraphy in Berlin in 1906 and then Assistant Quartermaster General for Western Command in 1907.

He was made General Officer Commanding 1 (Guards) Brigade in 1909 and then Director of Staff Duties at the War Office in 1913.

He served in the First World War, becoming General Officer Commanding 8th Division on the Western Front in 1914 (in which capacity he led the division at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle and the Battle of Aubers Ridge) and Military Secretary in 1916.

After the war he was appointed General Officer Commanding-in-Chief for Scottish Command in 1919; he retired in 1923.

From 1919 until his death in 1948 he served as Provincial Grand Master of Freemasons in Worcestershire. During his time in office, 50 new masonic lodges were dedicated and he personally participated at 41 of these. From 1935 to 1947 he also held the position of Deputy Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England, paying official visits to numerous Provinces in this country and to many Grand Lodges overseas.

He lived at Elmley Castle in Worcestershire.