Frederick Charles Davies (12 April 1884 – 23 July 1932) was a world-class Welsh

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 athlete who was better known to the sporting world as Tenby Davies, and who became the half-mile world professional champion in 1909 after an enthralling race against Irishman Beauchamp Day.

Biography

Frederick Charles Davies was born at South Parade in Tenby

Tenby

Tenby is a walled seaside town in Pembrokeshire, South West Wales, lying on Carmarthen Bay.Notable features of Tenby include of sandy beaches; the 13th century medieval town walls, including the Five Arches barbican gatehouse ; 15th century St...

, Pembrokeshire

Pembrokeshire

Pembrokeshire is a county in the south west of Wales. It borders Carmarthenshire to the east and Ceredigion to the north east. The county town is Haverfordwest where Pembrokeshire County Council is headquartered....

, Wales, the son of John Gwynne Davies (1854-1910), a stonemason and builder, and Sarah Phillips (1852-1935). Freddy Davies went on to achieve recognition as one of the greatest runners Wales has yet produced and was regarded as one of the finest half-milers ever seen, winning the World 880 yds championship at Pontypridd in 1909.

Fred Davies’ versatility as a world-class athlete is underlined by the fact that as well as excelling at the half-mile, he also won events throughout Britain at distances from 100 yds up to a mile. He was a regular competitor in the Welsh Powderhall 130 yds handicap sprints, organised by the Pontypridd

Pontypridd

Pontypridd is both a community and a principal town of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales and is situated 12 miles/19 km north of the Welsh capital city of Cardiff...

 Athletic Club and held at Taff Vale Park in the town during the early part of the twentieth-century. But ‘Tenby’ is probably best remembered for taking on his great rival, Irishman Beauchamp R. Day of Blackpool, at Pontypridd on Monday 23 August 1909 where he decisively beat him over the half-mile distance, clocking an impressive 1 min. 57.6 seconds in the process, which was one of the fastest times recorded in the World for that year.

In 1911 he married Agnes Emily Ferguson (1888-1945) at the parish church of St Mary the Virgin in Tenby, and in the years that followed the couple moved to Cardiff where they had three children. F. C. Davies died at his home of 9 Preswylfa Street in Canton

Canton, Cardiff

Canton is an inner-city district and community in the west of Cardiff, capital of Wales, lying west of the city's civic centre. One of the most ethnically diverse of Cardiff's suburbs, with a significant Asian population such as Pakistanis and Indians, Canton has a population just in excess of...

, Cardiff

Cardiff

Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...

, Glamorgan

Glamorgan

Glamorgan or Glamorganshire is one of the thirteen historic counties and a former administrative county of Wales. It was originally an early medieval kingdom of varying boundaries known as Glywysing until taken over by the Normans as a lordship. Glamorgan is latterly represented by the three...

, aged only 48.