Williams Davies, born to Saro parents in 1833, was one of the pioneer modern medical practitioners in Nigeria. His primary education was from a village school in Wellinton, Sierra Leone, where his Yoruba Sierra Leonean resident parents lived. From there, he entered in 1950, the Fourah Bay Institute in Freetown to train as a catechist. The Church Missionary Society, having recognized Davies’s potential, recommended him with two other students, Horton, and Samuel Campbell, for medical training in England. This was necessary to forestall the phenomenally high mortality among Europeans who came to West Africa.
After the successful completion of his medical training in the United Kingdom, William Davies resumed work at Cape Coast in December 1859 as Staff Assistant Surgeon in the Army medical services. A man of modest character, Davies, unlike his peer, Horton, kept a low profile throughout his career at the Army which lasted twenty-two years with his attainment of the position of the Surgeon-Major. His retirement was spent happily with his family till his death on 13 January, 1906.
