Tory aide dies after fall on his stag trip to Greek island
A CONSERVATIVE Party aide died after falling and hitting his head during his stag trip to a Greek island.
Ben Davies, 32, had flown to Mykonos with six friends to celebrate his impending wedding but slipped into a coma after the fall and was put in intensive care in hospital.
His fiancée Emily Russ, who was due to marry Mr Davies in three weeks, flew to his bedside and posted on Facebook: ‘Positivity is the way forward! The boy is a fighter! Probably one of the main reasons why I love him so much!’
However, Mr Davies never came round and died in hospital in Athens on Sunday night, a week after the fall. Yesterday Miss Russ, 31, was said to be inconsolable.
Communications executive Dex Torricke-Barton, who would have been an usher at the wedding, had been unable to go to Greece because of work commitments.
But he said Mr Davies was looking forward to the wedding as Miss Russ had ‘made him truly happy for the first time’.
He added: ‘Ben was on his bachelor weekend in Greece when he had an accident. Doctors in Athens tried to save his life for a week, but his injuries were too severe. I was going to be one of his groomsmen at the wedding. Now he’s having a funeral.’
Mr Davies, from Cardiff, had been deputy chief of staff for the Tories in Wales and was a graduate of Oxford University. He and Miss Russ had just bought a home together in Cardiff. Friend Ultan McCabe said: ‘I am grateful for our friendship and to have been lucky enough to have enjoyed so many laughs with you over the years. It is sickeningly sad that your life has been cut short.’
Vincent Bailey, a colleague and friend of Mr Davies, said: ‘Ben was incredibly bright and such a big character. He will be impossible to forget or replace.’
A friend of the couple added: ‘It is heartbreaking, they were meant for each other. Ben was a special man, very bright and funny with a big future ahead of him.’
Mr Davies studied history at the London School of Economics before getting an MSc in Russian and European Studies at Oxford.
A former adviser to the Liberal Democrats, he started working as a researcher for the Conservatives in the Welsh government in 2015 and quickly rose through the ranks. He had political ambitions but put them to one side to campaign for the party at the recent general election.
Cardiff Conservative councillor Jayne Cowan said: ‘Ben was a great figure on the campaign trail and very articulate. It’s absolutely tragic.’
‘Very bright and funny’