John Finch-Davies RIP

I’m sorry to hear about John Finch-Davis. I have read about some of his exploits in old issues of Control Column. He visited quite a lot of Whitleys in the early days.

My sincerest condonences to his family and friends.

John, who passed on recently at his home in Bournemouth, was a pioneer high ground wreck hunter and certainly known to some on this forum. He was a good friend of mine for almost 40 years and we shared numerous expeditions into the hills. When I first met him, he was in the RAF, servicing Oakington Varsities. He later worked at Duxford and Wycombe Air Park. Much of his life was spent driving trucks on overland tours across Africa, as well as Europe and Asia to the Himalayas. John was an immensely resourceful character with a great sense of humour. It’s difficult to imagine him not being round any more.

F-D

AT

Please accept my sincere condolences for the loss of your very good friend.

I briefly knew a Finch-Davies some 40 years ago but he was always called FD. Wondering what became of him, I tried the odd search on Friends Re-united for that surname but with no hits.

From what you say about him, I reckon that your good friend is the same person. I remember that he renovated a clapped-out Landrover, then he drove it solo from the Persian Gulf back to UK at the end of his overseas tour. Quite a daring adventure in those days! It does not surprise me to read that he continued to do those kind of things and I kind of miss him too.

Aerial