Thomas Benjamin Frederick Davis
Thomas Benjamin Frederick Davis (25 April 1867, in Havre des Pas, Saint Helier, Jersey – October 1942, in Durban, South Africa) was a wealthy businessman, yachtsman and philanthropist.
Davis did not go on to higher education but instead went to sea as a ship's boy aged 15 on the vessel Satellite, a 245-ton three-masted schooner owned by R & George Allix of Havre des Pas, Jersey but registered in Guernsey.
On his first voyage, the ship grounded in heavy weather on the Haisborough Sands just off the coast of Norfolk.
Once ashore in England he made his way to Southampton, and the captain of the Channel Islands' mailboat took him back to Jersey.
He arrived just as his family were leaving to attend his memorial service at St Luke's Church, where he had been a member of the choir.
[2] Davis continued with his seagoing career, sailing as a seaman around the world and obtaining his Extra Master's ticket at the unusually young age of 25.
In 1899 aged 32 Davis moved to Cape Colony, firstly to East London where he took up a stevedoring post.
He then moved to Port Elizabeth and finally settled in Durban taking over Brock and Company Stevedores.
She had been the private yacht of the sewing machine magnate Mortimer Singer but under the ownership of Davis was used for trading between Durban and Madagascar.
Westward was built between 1909 and 1910 by Nathanael Herreshoff of the Herreschoff Manufacturing Company of Rhode Island for the New York industrialist Alexander Smith Cochran.
Between 1925 and 1935, Davis raced the Westward in British and European waters against renowned opponents such as Sir Thomas J. Lipton's 23mR Shamrock (1908) and George V of the United Kingdom's HMY Britannia I (1893).
When no suitable owner could be found for his beloved Westward, in accordance with his wishes, she was scuttled in the Hurd Deep in the English Channel, at a memorial service on 15 July 1947.
In November 1927 the States of Jersey accepted this property consisting of a house, farm buildings and some 40 vergées of land.
A Deed of Covenant stated that the bequest was made on the understanding that it be renamed the Howard Davis Farm and that it should be used as an experimental center for the development and study of agriculture and for the instruction in this science of young Jersey people and other interested parties.
Howard College was officially opened in 1931 by Earl Clarendon, Governor General of the Union of South Africa.
Originally named Plaisance, this estate included a huge mansion surrounded by 10 acres (4.0 ha) of grounds and was the home of Sir Bertram Falle.
A statue of King George V by William Reid Dick was erected within the main entrance and the flagstaff was made from the spinnaker boom of Davis's racing yacht Westward.
In 1920 Davis purchased HMS Thames, an obsolete ex-Royal Navy sailing cruiser of 4,050 tons that had been used as a submarine depot ship and repair workshop on the River Medway.
Davis donated it in memory of his son to the Union of South Africa Defence Force for use as a training ship for cadets.
His aim was to give the boys the opportunity to receive character building and nautical training of the highest standard so they might serve in ships sailing under flags of Great Britain and the British Empire.
