W.h. davies biography

William Henry Davies was born in lowly circumstances in Pill, Newport in 1871.

William H. Davies | The Poetry Foundation

His father died when he was just two years old and his mother remarried, leaving the children in the care of Davies' grandparents.

He left school during his mid teens in disgrace, having stolen bottles of perfume with his shoplifting gang of friends, and began work as an ironmonger before becoming an apprentice to a picture frame maker.

Dissatisfied with life in Newport, Davies left Wales first for London and eventually America in 1893.

He spent the next several years living as a tramp, though intermittently working as a fruit picker, begging his way across America. In 1899, Davies lost his leg whilst attempting to jump from a train in Ontario, Canada as he was dragged under the wheels of the moving vehicle.

Davies returned to England during the same year, living in a series of London shelters and doss-houses.

Unfit for manual labour or life on the road due to the amputation of his leg, he r William Henry Davies - Poet Seers DUMY