ANDREW Davies, the previous owner of the land mark hotel, The Edward, died from a lung infection on 4 November.
Andrew owned The Edward from 1978 to 1992 before retiring. He was well known in the Westville community where he resided with his wife Mary till his passing.
Andrew was born on 11 June 1930. He had four children with his first wife, Molly Deeper, who died after battling cancer in May 1987.
Peter Davies was the eldest of the children. He married Suzanne and they have three children Benton, Molly and Luke. They live in America. The second son, Simon Davies married Alison and they have a son named Mark and they live in Cape Town.
Susan Davies lives in Australia while their youngest Luke Davies lives in London.
Andrew then married Mary York in 1987 and they have two children – Michael Davies lives in London and Jonathan Davies lives in Scotland.
Andrew Davies went to King Edward School in Johannesburg. He loved his school years and loved watching King Edward School (KES) play sport. He attended regular Old Boys Functions. He was captain of first team rugby and played Nuffield School Cricket.
He loved his sport and was a staunch Stormers supporter until the end.
When he married Molly he lived in Cape Town and loved his time there. His favourite club was Olympics Sport Club. He then moved to Swaziland where he bought a hotel called the Tavern. After he sold The Tavern he realised his life-long dream of purchasing The Edward Hotel, Durban in 1978 with his partner, Sam Clark.
When Mary and Andrew married they lived at The Hotel which Andrew sold in 1992 which was a very sad parting for him. He stayed in contact with his two faithful employees Freddie and John who are still there. Wherever he was in the world Andrew would always get a call from Freddie to wish him a Happy Christmas.
He then relocated to Cape Town and set up the distribution for Biggie Best in the UK and opened further shops all over Europe. He then commuted between Cape Town and the UK.
After this venture Andrew retired and moved to Durban where he settled with his wife Mary and sons Michael and Jonathan and extended family.
In the last few years of his life Andrew got Parkinson’s disease and he loathed not being able to drive but this did not stop him from meeting his friends at the Westville Country Club.
His death was sudden. He was admitted to hospital on Monday 3 November with a lung infection and passed away suddenly in the early hours of the morning on 4 November.
“He embraced life, his family and many friends. He was larger than life, proud and a gentleman to the end,” said his wife, Mary.
