Jack Davies stands in the centre foreground among men working on tanks and other military vehicles at the Royal Army Ordnance Corps workshops in Aldershot.
By this time he was employed as a Fitter ‘A’ Vehicles, specialising in tanks and military equipment. Other surviving photographs show that his work was not confined to the workshop; he also accompanied military units on manoeuvres and appears in an inspection role around military hardware.
What none of the men around him knew was the full extent of the technical experience he had already accumulated. Before becoming John Davies he had trained as an Air Mechanic during the First World War. He then spent five years in Egypt with the R.A.O.C. as a Storeman, a role requiring detailed familiarity with military equipment, components, tools and stores.
By 1937, therefore, Jack’s knowledge of military machinery had been built over more than two decades, combining technical training, stores experience and practical engineering work.
His later wartime and post-war career would build upon that foundation, but the expertise was already there.