Harold Stratton Davis MC FSA (1885–1969) was an architect in

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

who specialised in churches, vicarages and rectories. He won the Military Cross during the First World War while serving with the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

Military service

Stratton Davis began his military career as an enlisted soldier. He was promoted from lance-corporal in the Royal Engineers, South Midland Divisional Engineers, to second lieutenant in October 1915. He was awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...

in 1918 when he was lieutenant, acting major, for:

...conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in organising the digging of a line of posts under heavy machine-gun fire and visiting them all at great personal risk. On another occasion he displayed great determination and courage in collecting and assisting to reorganise, under artillery and machine-gun fire, the troops which had passed through the line of posts held by his company.

Architecture

Stratton Davis was articled to John Fletcher Trew of

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

but set up on his own account in 1913. Charles William Yates later joined him in partnership. Stratton Davis practised as an architect in Gloucester as Stratton Davis & Dolman. On the death of Edward J. Dolman in 1935 the firm became Stratton Davis & Yates. It had previously taken over the practice of Walter B. Wood in the late 1920s when Dolman, the senior assistant, had joined the firm.Records of Stratton Davis and Yates.
National Archives. Retrieved 3 September 2017. He was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (FSA) and served as Diocesan Surveyor for 26 years until retiring in 1949. His son,

David Stratton Davis Davis Isaac Stratton Davis was born in 1917, the son of Major Harold Stratton Davis and his wife Amy Buckingham Webb. He trained as an architect at the Royal West of England Academy School of Architecture in Bristol and joined the family firm S ...

, joined the practice as an apprentice in 1935; he became a partner and continued the practice, dealing mainly with ecclesiastical work. One notable exception is

the Inch The Inch is a district of Edinburgh, Scotland, located to the south of Inch Park in the south of the city. It is located 2 miles (3 km) south south-east of central Edinburgh. It incorporates the Inch housing development, Inch Park and the ca ...

housing estate in Edinburgh. The firm merged with ASTAM of Gloucester in 1998. The records of Stratton Davis & Yates are held at Gloucestershire Archives. Among his notable work is

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

Holy Trinity Church, Longlevens Holy Trinity Church is a grade II listed Church of England church in Longlevens, Gloucester. It was designed by Howard Stratton Davis and built in 1933–1934 in a fifteenth-century perpendicular Gothic style. It includes German and Dutch staine ...

, (1933–34) which he designed in a fifteenth-century Perpendicular Gothic style along with most of the interior fittings. Stratton Davis designed a memorial chapel for Christ Church on Brunswick Road in Gloucester in 1950. Stratton Davis designed a temporary timber church in 1928 that was subsequently expanded and now serves as the church hall for St Aldate's in Gloucester. He also designed a number of vicarages and rectories and his firm was recorded as diocesan architects for

Newent Newent (; originally called "Noent") is a market town and civil parish about 10½ miles (17 km) north-west of Gloucester, England. Its population was 5,073 at the 2001 census, rising to 5,207 in 2011, The population was 6,777 at the 2021 Census. ...

in 1932.Correspondence with Stratton Davis, Yates and Dolman, diocesan architects, about repair of spire.
National Archives. Retrieved 3 September 2017. Outside architecture, he was secretary and treasurer of the

Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Trust The Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society is a learned society concerned with the history and antiquities of the City of Bristol and the historic county of Gloucestershire. It was founded on 21 April 1876; and is a registered charity, ...

Selected publications

* Cox, John Charles. (1949) ''Gloucestershire''. (Eighth edition) London: Methuen & B.T. Batsford. (Reviser)

References

External links

Gloucestershire buildings by architect.Results for Davis, H. Stratton at The Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeological Society.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stratton Davis, Harold 1885 births 1969 deaths English ecclesiastical architects Royal Engineers officers British Army personnel of World War I Recipients of the Military Cross People from Gloucester 20th-century English architects Architects from Gloucestershire