David Ivor Davies took his stage name from his mother's maiden name. He was an only child and showed early promise as a musician when he won a scholarship to Magdalen College Choir School in Oxford aged ten. He left Oxford in 1909 and became a piano teacher in London. His first song was published in 1910 and he was fairly successful as a composer. In 1914 his song 'Keep the Home Fires Burning' became a huge hit and was the most popular song of WWI. Siegfried Sassoon loathed the song as he heard it constantly in the trenches and it reminded him of everything he detested about war. Sassoon fell out with Novello and did not become friends with him again until 1925. Then Sassoon was a visitor to Novello's home at 11 Aldwych, above the Strand Theatre, along with other actors and writers such as Noël Coward, Jack Buchanan, Gertrude Lawrence and Somerset Maugham.