Ships
- HMNZS Achilles (70) Acting Captain from 4 February 1943 · Relieved on 19 May 1943
William Gronow Davis, acting captain, had HMNZS Achilles from 4 February 1943 until 19 May 1943. In that stretch she left Auckland for Portsmouth and paid off there on 22 March for a long refit. He was not in her when the bomb hit X turret, and he was not in her when she went back to the Pacific.
Uboat.net gives his birth as 21 August 1901 and his death as 1 April 1946, aged 44. It gives no place for either.
The rank line on that page is acting sub-lieutenant on 15 January 1921, sub-lieutenant on 15 September 1921, lieutenant on 15 August 1923, lieutenant-commander on 15 August 1931, and commander on 31 December 1936. He is then marked acting captain, with the date left blank, and captain on 30 June 1944. He was mentioned in despatches on 25 June 1940 and awarded the Distinguished Service Cross on 3 December 1940. The page has no career narrative and does not say what those decorations were for.
He commanded the destroyer Ashanti as a commander from 29 November 1938 until early 1941. The Achilles command is the next appointment on the list, as acting captain, 4 February to 19 May 1943. Later he commanded the escort destroyer Garth from 15 August 1944 to 5 September 1945, and the destroyer depot ship Woolwich from 20 September 1945 to 1 February 1946. He died two months after leaving Woolwich.
The page records the death on 1 April 1946 and nothing after it.