Matthias Davis
DAVIS, Matthias John, MIEAust (1861-1939)
Matthias John Davis was born in Poole, Dorset, England, the son of William Charles Davis and his wife Charity Burt Davis (nee Williams). After a local education he worked as a clerk in England from 1877 to 1884.
In 1884 he travelled to Australia and worked in the Victorian Engineering Surveys Department. He also studied engineering. In the early 1890’s he travelled to New Zealand and worked on the construction of roads and bridges. In 1895 he came to Western Australia and set up in partnership with Frederick William Hankinson, operating as Davis, Hankinson and Company.
The Company was very successful in gaining contracts for tramway construction, bridge building, road building, drainage works and deep drilling. Most of Western Australia’s early artesian bores were drilled by Davis, Hankinson and Company. Projects in which the company was involved were Claisebrook Drain, extensions of the Geraldton and Bunbury Jetties, block paving streets in Fremantle, Newcastle and Lord Street tramways, artesian bores for the Transcontinental Railway, bridges at Lower Kalgan, Spencer's Brook and Preston River. The company also owned the historic schooner “Laughing Wave”.
In 1917, M J Davis was operating Davis, Hankinson and Company in partnership with Frederick Laurence Crawford who took later over the business in 1924.
M J Davis was a foundation member of the WA Institution of Engineers in 1910 and of its successor, the Institution of Engineers Australia in 1919. He was the Treasurer of the WA Institution of Engineers in 1919, 1920, and in his will he bequeathed funds for the purchase of equipment for the WA Division (see newspaper article).
Matthias Davis died on May 9, 1939 in Hove, Sussex.
References:
J. S. Battye (ed), Cyclopedia of Western Australia, vol 1 (Adel, 1912)
Northern Times, 13.1.1917, p2
West Australian, 30.7.1924, p1
West Australian, 27.1940, p11
“Obit” JIEA 12, 1940, p333.
