Just a fortnight after receiving his wings, Davies was shot down over the French town of Douai, captured, and placed in a German Prisoner of War camp.
[6] In 1932, having begun his journalism career two years earlier, Davies was given a job with The Manchester Guardian newspaper and was their football reporter under the name "An Old International".
[8] Neville Cardus, who was a cricket correspondent and chief music critic for The Manchester Guardian, described Davies' as "the first writer on soccer to rise above the immediate and quickly perishable of his themes and give us something to preserve.
"[9] On 6 February 1958, a plane carrying Davies, other journalists and the Manchester United squad crashed on takeoff from Munich-Riem Airport in Germany.
John Arlott, who had covered Manchester United's game at Highbury a week earlier, was originally meant to take Davies' spot on the trip to Belgrade as the 'Old International' was unavailable.