George Davies was the father of Gordon, the fiancé of Joan Walker. Along with his wife Hilda, they came to a Saturday tea at the Rovers in February 1961 with Joan’s parents Jack and Annie. The hosts fussed over the arrangements, setting their best china out and fancy cakes on the plates awaiting the guests who arrived at 4.30pm in their blue car.
While Hilda and Annie tried to outboast each other, Jack and the pipe-smoking George enjoyed a more convivial chat about bowling, with Jack having won a trophy last year and George being elected for this year as president of his local club. George was impressed with the Rovers, saying it was a “nice cosy place” although he admitted that he and his wife were temperance, though more for reasons of the dislike of the taste of alcohol rather than any religious or moral reasons. As a result, he had only been in a pub about three or four times in his life. When Concepta reminded Jack that a barrel of best mild needed venting, he invited George to join him into the cellar to watch the process. However it went wrong and the two men ended up being covered in the beer. Annie ripped into Jack for some time afterwards for embarrassing her in such a way.
Having maintained some level of contact with the Davies' over the years, widow Annie made plans to visit the couple in August 1972, upon learning that Hilda had taken ill.