G. LL. Davies, it says on the war grave in Voormezele Enclosure No. 3 Cemetery. He died on 15 March 1915. One of 1,500 soldiers buried near Voormezele village in West Flanders.
George Llelwyn Davies (to give him his full name) was one of five brothers who inspired J. M. Barrie’s children’s story Peter Pan. He was ten years old when Barrie wrote the story. The same age as Peter Pan. It is believed George was the model for ‘the boy who never grew up’.
Barrie sometimes incorporated something the young George had said to him into his text. Once, when Barrie described Neverland, where babies went after they died, George is said to have exclaimed, ‘To die will be an awfully big adventure.’
George was 21 when he was shot by a sniper in a trench near the village of St Eloi.
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
