John King Davis CBE (19 February 1884 – 8 May 1967) was an English-born Australian explorer and navigator notable for his work capping exploration ships in Antarctic waters as well as for establishing meteorological stations on Macquarie Island in the subantarctic and on Willis Island in the Coral Sea.

[1] Davis served as chief officer of the Nimrod during Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic expedition in 1908–1909.

[3] He also served as Captain of the Discovery in 1929–1930 in the course of the British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition.

It was at the beginning of this period that he volunteered to personally set up the remote Willis Island meteorological and cyclone warning station in 1921–22.

[10] Known in his lifetime as a "free thinker and plain speaker" and a "deepwater sailorman of the old school",[11] John King Davis remained a lifelong bachelor[11] and died on 8 May 1967 in Toorak, Victoria, aged 83.