John King Davis was born at Kew, Surrey, England in 1884. He went to sea in 1900 and was appointed Chief Officer of S.Y. Nimrod in 1907, navigating Ernest Shackleton's British Antarctic Expedition of 1907-1909. He was second in command and Master of S.Y. Aurora for Sir Douglas Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914, commanded the Ross Sea Relief Expedition, 1916-1917, and the Discovery for Mawson's British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition, 1929-1930.
