Alan Mearns Davidson, was born in Granville in 1898, the eldest of three sons born to Alexander and Edith Davidson. Alan was one of those youths keen to serve and join in the great adventure that was World War I to so many. With his mother’s approval he signed up at the age of 18, on 22 November 1916 as soon as he was old enough.
Assigned to the newly formed 1st Pioneers Battalion, his skills as a fitter and turner apprentice would be put to use along with all those other recruits with construction trades. Davidson shipped off on 24 January, 1917, aboard the Anchises bound for France where he would be for the duration of the war.
Five years after returning home he married Grace Harmer some years his junior. The couple and their young son Kelvin moved to Bathurst where Alan worked with the railways. The couple later returned to Granville and in 1963 he was working as a welder.
The Davidsons retired to Terrigal on the NSW Central Coast where they lived until Alan’s death at 83. In 1981. Sadly they outlived their only child who passed away a year earlier. No records exist of Alan’s playing career other than his appearance on the Granville Rechabites Honour Board, with whom he must have played as a juvenile.
The Australian War Memorial holds a bugle which Alan played at Anzac Day marches in Manly for many years.Â