Description:Lt. Col. R.A. Davies, Commanding Officer of the 29th Battalion (West Bromwich) South Staffordshire Regiment Home Guard. Richard Arthur Davies was born in Liverpool in 1886. He studied at Liverpool University where he graduated as a Civil Engineer. During World War I he served with the Royal Engineers in a special gas unit and left the Army with the rank of Captain. He married Daisy Gertrude Serjeant at Friern Barnet, Middlesex on 27 November 1915 and their first child, Marguerite Mary Davies was born on 27 January 1917. After the war he had a civil engineering contract business and lived in Birmingham. Aged 53, he joined the Home Guard and later became Commanding Officer of the 29th Battalion. He died at Formby, Lancashire on 21 August 1960.
The 29th Battalion were based at West Bromwich Albion's football ground, The Hawthorns, and were formed in May 1940 following the redesignation of the local Local Defence Volunteers group.