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Arthur Rhys Davids
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Arthur Percival Foley Rhys-Davids, DSO, MC and bar (26 September 1897 - 27 October 1917) was an English flying ace during the First World War. He was credited with 25 victories, including those over leading German flying aces Oberleutnant. Karl Menckhoff and Leutnant. Werner Voss.
Family Background
Rhys Davids' father, Thomas William Rhys Davids, served in the British civil service in Ceylon in the 1860s. The elder Rhys Davids then went on to become the Professor of Pali at the University of London and holder of the Chair in Comparative Religion at the University of Manchester.
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Encyclopedia
Arthur Percival Foley Rhys-Davids, DSO, MC and bar (26 September 1897 - 27 October 1917) was an English flying ace during the First World War. He was credited with 25 victories, including those over leading German flying aces Oberleutnant. Karl Menckhoff and Leutnant. Werner Voss.
Family Background
Rhys Davids' father, Thomas William Rhys Davids, served in the British civil service in Ceylon in the 1860s. The elder Rhys Davids then went on to become the Professor of Pali at the University of London and holder of the Chair in Comparative Religion at the University of Manchester. He married one of his students, Caroline Augusta Foley, another Pali scholar.
Early life
Arthur Rhys-Davids was the only son. He had two older sisters. He was born in South London, where the family stayed until 1904 when his father was appointed a Professor of comparative religion at Manchester University. Arthur Davids struggled to overcome a stammer, but was a successful student throughout his academic career, mainly due to a drive that pushed him to the brink of collapse.
In 1911 he followed two of his uncles and was enrolled at Eton College as a King's Scholar. As such, he had to wait until one of the 70 King's Scholars left before he could fill the vacancy, as 70 was the limit for them. He was not only rather young for college, at age 14, but also still small at 4 feet 11 inches in height and 84 pounds weight. There were also health concerns, as he was asthmatic and had some other unspecified maladies.
Whatever his physical condition, it did not seem to hinder him. He grew into a keen sportsman, taking part in Football (Soccer), Cricket, Eton Wall Game and the Eton Field Game. He was also an accomplished Rugby player, usually playing at half back. He also joined the Officer Training Corps. Both a visiting coach and his Classics tutor helped him overcome his stuttering.
Academically, he was a specialist in Classics and his interests included Music and English Literature, especially poetry.
As he left Eton in 1916, he was the top student, and as such was Captain of the school. He was also a member of "Pop", the Eton Society. He had won the Newcastle Scholarship. He intended to take up his place at Balliol College, Oxford as an Exhibitioner when he returned from the war. However, immediate duty beckoned.
War service
As a member of the Eton College Officer Training Corps, Davids had been spared conscription, even though the Conscription Act had taken effect at the beginning of 1916. He had a good friend who had enjoyed success as a pilot in the Royal Naval Air Service. The Royal Flying Corps was recruiting, with an especial interest in athletes.
Rhys-Davids joined the Royal Flying Corps on 28 August 1916 as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps Special Reserve to study aeronautics, still in Oxford. His curriculum included theory of Flight, Rigging, Artillery Observation, Photography, and Gnome (brand name) Engines and Instruments.
From there, he reported to the Central Flying School, Upavon, Wiltshire for flight training. About the time he earned his wings, Major Richard Blomfield was recruiting promising pilots with a musical bent for 56 Squadron. Blomfield signed Davids up. He joined the squadron in its move to France in April, 1917. Becoming a British fighter pilot in Bloody April was as hazardous as the very dangerous profession could get.
Rhys-Davids' start as a fighter pilot was inauspicious. He misjudged a landing and totally wrecked his plane, badly wrenching his back. Injured and minus an airplane, he was grounded for nearly a month.
While flying his first aerial combat on 7 May 1917 he was part of a harrowing and disastrous encounter. Eleven Royal Aircraft Factory SE5s of 56 Squadron ran into the experienced German airmen of Jasta 11 of the Flying Circus. One of the Squadron 56 flight commanders, famous ace Albert Ball, was killed in action. Five other British pilots were shot down, including Rhys-Davids. He found himself with jammed guns in a shotup biplane whose damaged engine quit. He was doubly fortunate, first when Kurt Wolff, the German riddling him, pulled away from a sure kill, second when he succeeded in a powerless dead stick landing behind British lines.
On the 23rd of May, he finally succeeded in shooting an Albatros D.III down out of control. The following day, he scored three victories in an hour, and the day after, he was an ace.
On 5 June 1917, after his sixth triumph, he received a telegram informing him that along with Capt. Cyril M. Crowe and 2nd Lt. R.T.C. Hoidge he had been awarded the Military Cross (MC). Rhys-Davids didn't believe that a pilot of his limited experience deserved such an award compared to Crowe, who had been to France on three separate occasions.
At the end of July, a famed ace of long experience transferred into 56 Squadron and became B Flight's commander. James Thomas Byford McCudden, a Victoria Cross holder and most decorated ace in British aviation, had risen from the ranks to survive three years of increasingly deadly aerial warfare. McCudden had cause to lecture Davids about unnecessary risks and their consequences. Arthur would confess to his mother that once in the air he became a different man; even by his own admission he could be a little too daring for safety's sake.
By the end of July, Rhys-Davids also had 13 victories and a Bar to his Military Cross.
August showed him not scoring. September, however, began with a roar. On the 3rd, he destroyed an Albatros D.V. On the 5th, he destroyed two more D.Vs and drove another one out of battle, all within 45 minutes. On the 9th, he scored yet again.
Then, on the 23rd, he was the victor in one of the epic dogfights of fighter aviation. Werner Voss, considered by many to be as adroit a German ace as Manfred von Richthofen, engaged Rhys-Davids, McCudden, and five other pilots of 56 Squadron.
Another German ace, Karl Menckhoff, tried to intervene, and Davids shot him and his Albatross D.V down out of control.
Voss then used the superior maneuverability and tighter turning radius of his Fokker Dr.I to singly stand off the seven British aces and hole all their aircraft.
The battle ended after a near midair collision, when Davids got behind Voss, and the German unaccountably stopped evading fire. Voss's Fokker Dr.I smashed to earth like a meteor. Along with a German plane downed earlier that day, that brought Rhys-Davids' score to 20. Rhys-Davids was quoted as saying, "If only I could have brought him down alive." That quotation could have been considered the motto of a pilot whose record, when analyzed, showed him courageous, dutiful, but lacking killer instinct.
Over the next three weeks, Davids would succeed five more times in shooting down a German aircraft, with his final victory on 17 October 1917. His final tally was 14 enemy aircraft shot down out of control, and three more shot down out of control in conjunction with a fellow British pilot or pilot. He destroyed seven German machines--five singly, one of which went down in flames; one shared destruction; one down in flames with another ace's help. He also was responsible for the capture of a two-seater observation plane.
His Death
Rhys-Davids was last seen flying east of Roeselare on 27 October 1917. The Germans credited Karl Gallwitz of Jasta Boelcke as having brought him down. Rhys-Davids' family fruitlessly hoped he had simply been caught and imprisoned because he carried a book of poetry by William Blake with him into combat in case he was shot down and captured. However the Germans, as so often was done in World War I, dropped a message over his home aerodrome giving details of his death and burial. The Royal Flying Corps declared him as having been killed in action on the date that he disappeared. His mother received notification on 18 March 1918. Ironically, on the same day he was decorated again, this time with the Distinguished Service Order.
German authorities would return Rhys-Davids' notecase after the war, in 1920.
Scholars of World War I fighter aviation have since established the site of Rhys-Davids' death through comparison of Karl Gallwitz's combat reports with other documents. Rhys-Davids crashed about five miles from the impact of Werner Voss's Fokker.
Rhys-Davids is named on the Arras Flying Services Memorial.
On the date of his death Rhys-Davids was promoted to Lieutenant, backdated to the 1 September 1917.
Quotes
Sir William Orpen on having first met Arthur Rhys Davids. Rhys Davids was chosen by Marshal of the Royal Air Force Hugh Trenchard and his assistant Maurice Baring as one of two airmen to have their portraits taken by Orpen.
reminiscence of Captain. Duncan Grinnell-Milne, Commanding officer of 56th squadron RFC, upon hearing news of the death of Captain. Richard Maybery
Honours and awards
- 18 July 1917 Rhys-Davids was awarded the Military Cross - 2nd Lt. Arthur Percival Foley Rhys-Davids, Spec Res. For conspicuous gallantry and devotion. On many occasions he has shot down hostile machines and put others out of action, frequently pursuing to low altitudes. On all occasions his fearlessness and dash have been most marked.
- 17 September 1917 Rhys-Davids was awarded a Bar to his Military Cross - 2nd Lt. Arthur Percival Foley Rhys-Davids, M.C., R.F.C., Spec Res. "For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty whilst on offensive patrols. He has in all destroyed four enemy aircraft, and driven down many others out of control. In all his combats his gallantry and skill have been most marked, and on one occasion he shot down an enemy pilot who had accounted for twenty-nine Allied machines. His offensive spirit and initiative have set a magnificent example to all."
- 18 March 1918 was awarded the Distinguished Service Order - 2nd Lt. Arthur Percival Foley Rhys-Davids, M.C., R.F.C., Spec Res. For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in bringing down nine enemy aircraft in nine weeks. He is a magnificent fighter, never failing to locate enemy aircraft and invariably attacking regardless of the numbers against him.
Further reading
Alex Revell. Brief Glory: The Life of Arthur Rhys Davids, DSO, MC and Bar. William Kimber, 1984.
Cecil Lewis. Sagittarius Rising.
External links
- Accessed 8 September 2008.
- Accessed 8 September 2008.
- Accessed 8 September 2008.
- Accessed 21 October 2008.
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