Bernard Davison was a Jewish entrepreneur, who was active in Sheffield between the 1890s and 1930s. According to his naturalization papers (1900), he was a ‘subject of Russia, having been born at Warsaw in Poland … the son of David and Cecilia Davison, both subjects of Russia, of the age of twenty-eight years’.  It is not known when Bernard Davison arrived in England, but in about 1892 he started a small business as a cap manufacturer and draper in Sheffield. He had about £130 capital and opened a shop in Harvest Lane. In 1893, he married Rachel Lena Schweitzer. They lived above the shop with their six children.

In 1899, Davison and another draper (Max Goldberg) were charged with assaulting Nathan Cohen (a tailor) at a Jewish wedding ball. The defendants were fined £5 and bound over for six months (Sheffield Evening Telegraph, 6 July 1899). Davison’s drapery business was bankrupt in about 1902, with debts of £1,700, though he resumed trading. In about 1910, he partnered J. Brown and J. Strafford in a cutlery venture. Davison, Brown, Strafford & Co operated at Pool Works, Burgess Street.  Davison later stated that he pitched in with £350, mainly so that he could find a job for two sons as apprentices. It was a typical backstreet cutlery business, which was involved mostly in finishing (hafting and buffing) table cutlery. In 1913, a ‘fierce and somewhat exciting fire’ erupted in a workshop making xylonite handles (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 7 April 1913). The partners were making little profit. By 1916, their arrangement was dissolved and B. Davison & Co became the ‘successor’. After two years of trading,  Davison moved the enterprise to 20 Eyre Street. He claimed later that he had installed machinery worth £500. His trade mark was ‘DEBESCO’ (perhaps derived from letters in his name). In 1922, Davison decided to sell the company and mark to Lewis, Rose & Co.

While continuing as a draper, Davison attempted to branch into the motor business. He purchased premises on Langsett Road, with a garage and a small ‘fleet’ of vehicles at the back. However, the heavy borrowing involved (about £4,500) soon bankrupted him (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 9 April 1923).  He returned to his shop at Harvest Lane, until his retirement as a draper at the end of the 1930s. He died at the Royal Hospital West Street on 12 August 1943. He was buried at Ecclesfield Jewish Cemetery, leaving £540. According to the death registration, he was 76:  however, his birth date in the Register of England & Wales (1939) was 1 January 1872.