Considered to be one of the club’s finest-ever goalkeepers Arthur Davies played for Exeter City between 1930 and 1935. He joined the club from Everton and later played for Plymouth Argyle. He was a member of the 1931 FA Cup team as well as the side which finished runners-up in Division Three (South) in 1932/33. Arthur, who had helped Everton win the Football League in 1928, died in 1940 aged thirty-five whilst still registered with Plymouth Argyle.

Whilst still a schoolboy Arthur played for New Brighton’s reserve team and later for Flint in North Wales. Asking for a trial at Everton he was offered a contract and went on to play 89 league games for the club including seven out of the last eight matches when the Football League championship was secured in 1927/28 (with Arthur being on the field when Dixie Dean scored his 60th goal of the season in May 1928).

In 1929/30 Arthur was honoured by being selected to keep goal for the Football League versus the Irish League at Goodison Park but was soon put on the transfer list at the end of the same season for the sum of £2,000. Eventually the fee was considerably reduced by the league and he rather surprisingly joined Exeter City for just £750.

His first game for Exeter was against Norwich City at home on 30 August 1930 and, in addition to making 37 league appearances that season, he memorably played a key role in the Grecians’ run to the quarter-final of the FA Cup. An ever-present in 1931/32, he repeated the feat in 1932/33 when City were runners-up in Division Three (South). 

Moving to Plymouth Argyle in August 1935, Arthur returned to the North West when he joined Southport in January 1937 but was soon back at Home Park the following year.

Having appeared 36 times for Plymouth in 1938/39, and still registered with the club, Arthur Davies moved to live in Southport upon the outbreak of war and died on 10 February 1940 from peritonitis and a perforated duodenal ulcer at the age of 35.