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I’ve seen Rod Davis’s surname spelled both “Davis” and “Davies”. Which is correct?
Rod Davis is yet another member of the Quarrymen family to suffer the misfortune of having his surname spelled incorrectly! However, while Nigel Walley and Ivan Vaughan have had their names mis-spelled just in books – Rod has had the indignity of seeing his name mis-spelled in metal!
That is because as a result of having his family name “Davis” wrongly written as “Davies” in so many Beatles and Lennon books, the mistaken spelling was used by the sculptor who was engaged to create the metal plate on the plaque commemorating the 40th anniversary of the day that John Lennon and Paul McCartney met for the first time. The plaque is on the exterior of the hall at St. Peter’s Church in Woolton, Liverpool, where the historic encounter took place. By the time the error was spotted, it was just days before the unveiling in July 1997, and too late to correct the mistaken spelling.
Rod is actually quite philosophical about the error, noting that his original family name had actually been DAVIES up till the early days of the 20th century until some poor handwriting by his grandfather inadvertently led to the family changing its name! Apparently his grandfather James Davies used to handwrite the letter “e” in Davies as a loop over the letter “i”, and so Rod’s father, who was born in Ireland, thought his name was spelt Davis on his birth certificate! So the mistaken spelling on the St. Peter’s Church plaque has inadvertently restored the correct spelling of his family name!