The moment 22-year-old Marian Werner saw a plaque dedicated to a young man killed in battle, she knew his name would stay with her forever.

The plaque was on the wall of the Church of St James the Great, in Friary Park, Barnet, where Mrs Werner was at a friend’s wedding in May 1958.

It commemorated Second Lieutenant Ivor Theophilus Davies, who was born in 1894, and died in the Battle of Flanders on June 22, 1915. His body was never found.

Times Series:

The parallels between his life and hers left her evaluating her life. She too was a Second Lieutenant in the Territorial Army, and had already lived two years longer than Ivor had.

The thought inspired her to ask herself the following questions – what have I done with my life? Where am I going? And what do I want to do?

“I was really drawn into his story. I thought – I am a woman and I am not involved in a war, I am safe. But he had lost his life. That could have been me. He was just two years younger than I was when he died,” she says.

Mr Davies’ name stayed with her throughout the ceremony and the reception. It stayed with her as she travelled back to base, as she learnt how to fire a gun and drive a car. It was with her when she left the army and moved to Montreal in Canada, and when she returned to England. It was even with her as she married her own husband, Karel, in 1969.

And it is still with her today, nearly 57 years on.

Mrs Werner, who has played tennis at Wimbledon six times, went on to be a typing teacher - but always felt like something was missing.

Now 72 and living in Etchingham Park Road, Finchley, she said: “Ivor made me think about my life and what was happening in the world.

“I may be upset over something trivial but elsewhere, a war I am not connected to is going on. I am an ordinary person, but around me, extraordinary things are happening.”

And this year, to mark the centenary of his death, she decided to head back to the Church of St James the Great, in Friary Park, to find out more about the man who changed her life - even though she did not know what he looked like.

Here is what she discovered…

Ivor’s father, Thomas Alexander Davies, ran a pub called the Kettle Drum in Hampstead and ten years later, moved to Willow Road, Hampstead, where he worked as a wine merchant.

Ivor, the youngest of five children, grew up in Brook House, in Friern Lane, which has since been torn down.

The family had a coachman, stables and a gardener. And in 1911, just four years before his death, they moved to Freshfield in Woodside Park Road, which is now a retirement home.

He attended Oundle Public School, in Peterborough, where as a boarder, he was on the cricket and rugby teams.

Ivor pictured with his cricket team below. Photo courtesey of the Oundle School

Times Series:

Ivor with his classmates, circa 1913. Photo courtesy of the Oundle School

Times Series:

Local historian John Philpot had compiled a dossier on Ivor, as well as all other local boys killed during the First World War. She was told a window dedicated to his mother, Kate Gardner Davies, is still in the church.

And so for the first time in 57 years, Mrs Werner was able to see a photograph of the man who never left her heart.

Ivor, pictured below

Times Series:

The church is now the Greek Orthodox Church of St Katherine the Great - but priest Father Damien Constantino agreed to hold a memorial service to Ivor last Monday. It was led by rector, Oliver Paul Walmsley-McLeod and attended by Deputy Lieutenant of Barnet, Martin Russell.

Children from the Bible class also came down to pay their respects as Mrs Werner laid a wreath next to the plaque she first spotted all those 57 years ago.

Times Series:

She said: “It was extraordinary and extremely moving. I couldn’t believe I was putting a face to a name I’d lived with for so long. Suddenly there he was, a fine looking young man playing cricket and rugby.

“To be able to remember him, and know who he is, is just tremendous.”