4986035 Private Saville ‘Dago’ Davis was born on 27^th June 1923 in Sneinton, Nottingham.

He was the son of Saville ‘Sav’ Davis senior, the light middleweight boxing champion of the Midlands and Frances May Davies (née Dove). Young Dago perfected his swimming skills that would later save his life in the river Rhine by diving for coals spilled from the barges travelling down the Nottingham Canal.

At 17 he lied his way into the Sherwood Foresters followed by joining the Parachute Regiment.

At the age of 20 Dago was on parachute course No. 56 at Ramat David in Palestine from 25 July to 06 August 1943.

When back in the Uk his battalion was based in Melton Mowbray, where he met his wife-to-be Joan. The couple had a whirlwind romance and married in Blaby, Leicestershire in early 1944, just three weeks after they first met.

But the euphoria was short-lived. Within months, the war had parted them. Dago dropped on the second day of the operation 18th of September 1944 where his battalion was re-directed to Arnhem with the 2nd Battalion The South Staffordshire Regiment to assist 1st and 3rd Parachute Battalions in breaking through to the bridge. The attempt to get to Frost at the Bridge failed on Tuesday 19 September, and the remaining force fell back on Oosterbeek village. There they held a perimeter which found the approximately 150 men of the 11th Parachute Battalion in Lonsdale Force and later positioned by the old church and in the Weverstraat. At the end of the battle Dago swam across the river Rhine. When he had crossed the river, he landed way downstream.

That was the only time he ever sat and sobbed during the whole war. It was sheer relief, the realization he had survived.

Dago survived his wife, who died on 2^nd February 1999 and he died on 6^th March 2003 in Nottingham. At the time he was living in Hedderley Walk, Nottingham.