The bell ringers of Barga have all this week been making sure that the whole valley is aware that the holiday for the patron saint of Barga , St. Christopher will be shortly upon us.
They have been ringing the bells every day at midday been up in the bell tower of the Duomo in Barga Vecchia.
As can be seen in the video below it is hot and tiring work swinging the centuries old bells but today something new came to light just before they started their energetic work.
The sunlight streaming through the open window of the bell tower lit up something that has not been noticed before — a penciled in name and date on the inside of the largest bell.
Sgt. Davidson and the date, Oct 44.
Some observers have cast some doubt of the authenticity of the date of the writing as the calligraphy seems somewhat of a later date but never the less, there is now a concentrated effort on the part of a number of interested people in finding out from military records all they can about the enigmatic Sgt. Davidson.
One of the bell ringers and local historian, Cristian Tognarelli in this short interview above (in Italiano) wonders who was the person who left his name on the inside of the bell in the Duomo.
October 1944 was when the Gothic line was here in Barga and so the Duomo would be a perfect place for a look out over the valley.
So did Sgt Davidson leave his name and if so what happened to him afterwards … did he return to his country and what was his country of origin?
Could he have been one of the members of the 92nd Battalion, part of the 366th or 370th Infantry Regiment that were involved in the Sommocolonia story with Lt. John Fox ?