After a period in command of a reserve centre in Staffordshire, he was sent to hospital suffering from both mental and physical ill health, and committed suicide in May 1918.

After leaving school, he emigrated to New Zealand, where he spent two years working for a relative before settling at Taranaki, setting up a farm and practising as a surveyor.

[1] One son, Henry Cornwall Davies, served with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force during the First World War, and, like his father, transferred to the British Army in 1915, becoming a captain in the Royal Engineers.

[3] On 10 April 1893, he joined the Hawera Mounted Rifle Volunteers,[4] and was commissioned as a lieutenant in May 1895; he was quickly promoted to captain six weeks later, becoming the commander of the unit.

[5] On 3 October 1899 Davies transferred into the Permanent Force of the New Zealand Militia, where he was made responsible for the training of volunteer mounted units.

The Boer War, however, was declared a week later; Davies was quickly seconded to command a company of the volunteer First New Zealand Contingent being sent to the Cape.

[1] He established a high professional reputation commanding the unit, and was promoted to lieutenant colonel and made a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB),[1] as well as winning the respect of his men – one described him as "not only liked but loved".

The contingent operated as a single unit, unlike its predecessors, and Davies became the first officer from New Zealand to command an independent force on active service overseas.

[17] At the end of the one-year attachment, he had so impressed the British Army that they offered him an appointment as commander of 6th Brigade in October 1910, with the temporary rank of brigadier general.

[32] He was relieved of command by Major-General Robert Wanless O'Gowan in March 1918,[33] and on 9 May 1918, after a prolonged period of physical and mental ill health, he committed suicide at the Special Neurological Hospital for Officers, Kensington.