William Robert Davidge (1879–1961) was an architect and surveyor, who combined these skills with an enthusiasm for urban improvement to become one of the pioneering leaders of the British town planning movement of the early twentieth century.
While a student Davidge was articled to Marshall Hainsworth, Surveyor to the Teddington Urban District Council.
In 1909 he presented a paper[2] to the Institution of Surveyors (later to become the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) in support of the Housing, Town Planning, &c. Act 1909 which proposed to make it mandatory for local authorities in the United Kingdom to introduce town planning systems.
Davidge prepared professional planning reports for places throughout the United Kingdom, including recommendations for Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, West Kent and Belfast, Northern Ireland.
As a result of this tour Davidge drew up New Zealand's first civic improvement scheme, a plan for the Taranaki city of New Plymouth.