He was a printer for the Lyttelton Times newspaper and became President of the Typographical Union and Vice-President of the Trades and Labour Council.

[2] From between the general elections of 1902 and 1905, Davey was one of the three members of parliament representing the multi-member City of Christchurch electorate.

He had been presented with a petition to stand for parliament and came third out of nine contenders in this three-member electorate, behind Tommy Taylor and Harry Ell.

[1] In 1905, these multi-member electorates were split up, and he won the Christchurch East electorate against three other contenders: William Whitehouse Collins (who had previously been in Parliament for the Liberal Party), Henry Toogood[3] (a young engineer who only recently left Canterbury College and who would become one of the founding members of the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand), and Frederick Cooke[4] (a prominent member of the Socialist Party).

[1] The Lyttelton Times parliamentary correspondent described Davey as: "tall, straight, solidly built – the best Mayor St. Albans ever had".