Talk:John Davis (British businessman)

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Marriages[edit]

The text says that John Davis was married five times but lists only four wives, both in the main text and in the infobox. What's the source for the fifth spouse? Simon Coward (talk) 09:29, 30 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry for the belated reply. The article as I've just added a citation to it says six wives. Couldn't say what the source was for the editor who said five, or the one who altered this to six, but here is the relevant text from Davis's entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: "Davis married his first wife, Kathleen Blanche Mary Coryn (b. 1904/5)... on 29 November 1930. This was the first of six marriages, though in later life Davis preferred to omit two of them — the first and the third — from the records (he also gave a false date for the second marriage)... On 23 January 1937 he married Joan Grace Buckingham (b. 1916)... On 22 December 1941 he married Jeanne Beryl Stephens (1918–1988)... this marriage lasted only three months. His fourth wife was Marion Louise (b. 1918/19), daughter of Thomas Sydney Gaved, an antique dealer. She had already changed her surname to Davis by the time of their marriage, on 21 April 1947... On 3 March 1954 Davis married Dinah Sheridan (1920–2012)... His final marriage, on 5 March 1976, was to Felicity Mary Rutland (b. 1937/8)... All Davis's marriages except the last ended in divorce." Per$1$tenceofv1$1on (talk) 01:30, 18 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

His obituary in The Times (29 May 1993, p. 17) says he "acknowledged four marriages but was reputed to have entered into six". Per$1$tenceofv1$1on (talk) 02:08, 18 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Legacy[edit]

Considering that a 1996 documentary about Davis called him The Man Who Ruined the British Film Industry, there's nothing in the article in its current state about Davis's impact on said industry (as opposed to a small number of references to what he was like personally). His "diversification" of Rank's business interests didn't just mean investing in Xerox but shutting down a lot of other things that he regarded as unsafe investments (like studios). Per$1$tenceofv1$1on (talk) 01:45, 20 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]