Edwin Davies

Eddie Davies was born on 18 June 1946 in Little Lever, near Bolton, Lancashire, England.[1][2] He was educated at the Farnworth Grammar School in Farnworth, Lancashire, England.[1][2] He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics from Durham University.[1][3]

Davies started his career at Avon Rubber.[3] He worked in management at the Scapa Group from 1968 to 1984.[1] He served as chairman of the Strix Group from 1984 to 2006.[1]

He joined the board of directors of Bolton Wanderers F.C. in 1999.[2] By 2003, he became the majority shareholder of Burnden Leisure, which owned Bolton Wanderers.[2] In 2011–2013, he was still the owner of the club.[4][5] In October 2014, it was announced that Davies was ready to sell the club.[6] Davies wrote-off loans to Bolton which, including interest, totalled approximately £175 million.[7] Shortly after his death, it was revealed that, four days before he died, Davies had given Bolton £5 million to help save the club from administration.[8]

He served on the boards of directors of Moonshift Investments, Sula Group, and Squarestone Brasil.[3] He has been a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants since 1985 and the Chartered Management Institute since 1996.[3] He became an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to industry in 2000.[2]

As of 2004, he was the 558th richest man in the United Kingdom, with an estimated wealth of £60million.[2]

He was for a time a Trustee of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.[1] The Eddie and Susan Davies Galleries at the V&A are the result of charitable donations from Davies and his wife.[9] Those five galleries include 200 paintings by Thomas Gainsborough, John Constable, J. M. W. Turner, Sandro Botticelli, Tintoretto, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edgar Degas and Eugène Delacroix.[10]

He made a charitable contribution of £100,000 to the Royal Bolton Hospital in Bolton for the establishment of a coronary care unit.[2] He also made charitable gift to the Manchester Business School,[3] part of the University of Manchester, which led to the establishment of the Eddie Davies Library.[11] He received an honorary doctorate in 2008.[1]

He became a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for charitable services in 2011.[12]

He was married to Susan Davies.[10] They had two children.[2] They resided on the Isle of Man.[5] He underwent coronary artery bypass surgery in 1996.[2]