William John Gordon Davis MM (SN 9388) born in Ballarat was a 21 year old woodworker when he enlisted on July 14th 1915. Assigned to the 2nd Light Horse Field Ambulance his unit embarked from Melbourne aboard the Ulysses on March 1st 1916. On August 31st 1916 it was announced he had been awarded the Military Medal for distinguished gallantry. ’On 9th August 1916 at Bir-el-Abd in company with Capt. Jamieson and Drivers Crawford and Thompson, he went with a sandcart to the left flank. Leaving the nearer wounded, they passed through the line which was rapidly retiring, reached two wounded men in front. Under heavy rifle and shell fire, loaded them into the cart with great difficulty as bursting shells were frightening the horses and causing them to plunge… The party returned, with their harness in a tangled condition, picking up three other wounded on the way back.' He was troubled by appendicitis through August and September 1916, but in October he again came under notice, being Mentioned in Despatches. He was assigned to escort duty as a nursing orderly on the Vestalia returning to Australia in early 1917 and was discharged on March 23rd.

Lucas’s Staffs Appreciation of Brave Men, the original Avenue register, records his name as Gordon Davis.