George Llewelyn Davies

[laurenticwave]

One hundred years ago today, George Llewelyn Davies was killed on Flanders fields at the age of 21.
According to J M Barrie, George was the “real” Peter Pan. A few months earlier he had given a rare interview to the New York Tribune:  "It's funny that the real Peter Pan — I called him that — is off to the war now. He grew tired of the stories I told him, and his younger brother became interested. It was such fun telling those two about themselves. I would say, 'Then you came along and killed the pirate' and they would accept every word as the truth. That's how Peter Pan came to be written. It is made up of only a few stories I told them."
George's brother Peter later wrote, "Few that survived [the war] would recall anyone whose image serves better as the flower and type of that doomed generation. Average age about twenty-one; on the whole a devoted, laughing, fatalistic, take-it-as-it-comes company, often coarse of tongue, too young to have been coarsened in body or soul by the asperities of adult life — the bloom of youth on them still. Among them George was unquestionably conspicuous ... He had so much that was really good without being in the least good-goody, and was such fun, and so tolerant, and would have been such value always; and blood and background and memories are a mighty strong bond; and how few, after all, are those in all one's life with whom one can be completely at ease. That he had his fair share of the celebrated du Maurier charm or temperament, is certain; there was also a good leavening of sound, kind, sterling Davies in him too. I think he had that simplicity which J.M.B. saw in Arthur, and which, though I only partly understand it, I dimly perceive to be perhaps the best of all characteristics. In fact I think he had in him a very great deal of the best and finest qualities of both Arthur & Sylvia. But it was all of thirty years ago, and he was only twenty-one, and what do I know about him really?"
In his 'Dedication to Peter Pan', Barrie recalled George as being "the most gallant of you all."  I visited his grave in 1984 with my son Anno, then aged 3, who was later killed a month before his 21st birthday. I always felt that Anno and George shared many characteristics, and so today I remember them both with deep affection and love.

[RaeOlivia]

When I was seven Peter Pan and Wendy was the book that initiated my love of literature.My parents read to me every evening but this was the first book I wanted to read so often that I had to learn to read it myself. This lead to an obsession with the story of Peter Pan(many of my favourite childhood memories are of going to see productions of the play)and a love for J.M Barrie’s writing. I consider The Little White Bird to possibly be the finest work of literature to exist. J.M Barrie has had such a great influence on my life and the way I perceive the world and, of course, so has George whose charming personality inspired the character of David A- and the creation of Peter Pan. On the 15th March my mum and I went to Belgium to mark the hundredth anniversary since George’s passing. I feel that George was such an important figure during my childhood and my growing up that it’s difficult to articulate the affection I have for him and how I felt to be standing by his grave. I'm glad I made the trip in the end although it was really very sad.
 Thanks Andrew Birkin for all the insight you have given me into the lives of J.M Barrie and the Llewelyn Davies family.