WILLIAM Albert Davey was born on June 2, 1900, and baptised on July 23, in the village of Common Moor, in the Parish of St Cleer.

His father and mother, Albert and Johanna, ran the Grocery Shop in the village, Johanna Davey was the first sub-Postmistress at the Common Moor Post Office when it opened in c1928. They had six children, four survived to adulthood including William and Alice. For his education William walked for a mile across moorland in dry weather, and a longer route along the lanes in winter, to Trekeive Steps School, north of Golitha Falls. Sixteen days after the Royal Flying Corps merged with the Royal Naval Air Services to become the Royal Air Force, William enlisted on April 17, 1918 at the age of 17 and served during WWI.

After he was demobilised from the RAF William settled down in Benoni City, on the outskirts of Johannesburg. In his first year in South Africa, he worked in a gold mine, then joined the Vacuum Oil Company, which became the better-known Mobil Oil, as a Sales Representative. William became their Area Manager and managed their new depot in Benoni. On August 16, 1928 he married Janet Ostermeyer, they had three sons. In 1944 Willaim started his own garage business and held directorships in several companies, dealing in auto spares, tyre remoulds and even ice cream production. He was elected Mayor of the City of Benoni on three occasions in the early 1950s.

The Cornish Guardian of May 26, 1955 reported on a recent visit William had made to his birthplace of Common Moor and revealed more of his time abroad under the headlines ‘He Gives his Name to a Town’ and ‘Three Months Visit to Common Moor’. ‘The town named after him is Daveyton, a township ten miles from the City of Benoni; Daveyton is a new township built to house 80,000 of the Bantu population in 13,000 dwellings at a cost of £7-million. Bantu construction workers were employed on the 1,564 acres site which included seven schools, a hospital, police station, civic centre, sports grounds and the William Davey Social Centre, named after William’.

The main objective of William’s return to Common Moor in 1955 was to visit his 84-year-old widowed mother Mrs. Johanna Davey. During the visit he stayed with his sister and brother-in-law, Alice and Francis Mitchell, who ran the village Post Office and General Store, following the family tradition, Francis had been an Air Raid Precautions Warden during WWII. While in Cornwall William visited the building which had previously housed his old school at Trekeive Steps, which can be seen from the dam at Siblyback reservoir; Trekeive was also the name he gave to his home in South Africa.

By Brian Oldham, Liskeard Museum volunteer and Bard of the Gorsedh Kernow

• The town’s museum has a wealth of local knowledge and history on display. To learn more about what is on display visit liskeardmuseum.com