Arthur Spurling
Encyclopedia
Squadron Leader
Arthur Rowe Spurling was a Bermudian
who served during the First World War as an infantry
man and an aviator, becoming an ace
, credited with six aerial victories, and as a ferry
pilot during the Second World War.
Rowe Spurling was born into a prominent Bermudian family in Hamilton
, in the British colony of Bermuda
, on 19 May 1896.
declared war on the Central Powers
in August 1914, the part-time volunteer army units in Bermuda, the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps
(BVRC) and the Bermuda Militia Artillery
(BMA), were mobilised. Although they had to fulfil their roles as parts of the Bermuda Garrison
, both units immediately proposed sending drafts to the Western Front
. The BVRC quickly formed a detachment in December 1914, which was to train in Bermuda over the winter before being dispatched across the Atlantic. This contingent was composed of volunteers who were already serving, as well as those who enlisted specifically for the Front. Rowe volunteered for the contingent in February 1915. The Contingent trained at Warwick Camp
through the winter and Spring. It consisted of Captain Richard Tucker and eighty-eight other ranks.
The Contingent left Bermuda for England on 7 May 1915, travelling to Canada, then crossing the Atlantic in company with a much larger Canadian draft. It had been hoped that the Contingent could be attached to the Second Battalion of The Lincolnshire Regiment (2 Lincolns), which had been on Garrison in Bermuda when the War began. When the Contingent arrived at the Lincolns depot in Grimsby, the 2nd Battalion was already in France and it was attached to 1 Lincolns, instead. Captain Tucker carried written instructions from the War Office
that ensured that they remained together as a unit, under their own badge. Despite this, the riflemen were given regimental numbers by the Lincolns, Spurling's being 3/17150 (his old BVRC number was 989).
The contingent arrived in France on 23 June, the first colonial volunteer unit to reach the Front, as an extra company attached to 1 Lincolns, and remained as such til the following summer, by when its strength had been too reduced by casualties to compose a full company, having lost 50% of its remaining strength at Gueudecourt
on 25 September 1916. The survivors were merged on 17 October 1916, with the thirty-three men of a Second Contingent of the BVRC, newly arrived from Bermuda, and all were retrained as Lewis gunners
.
Rifleman Spurling was twice wounded in 1916: in the hand on 3 July, and in the foot on 13 July (when he reported he was also buried for a few hours). In July 1917, he received a commission, one of sixteen BVRC enlisted men who would become officers while serving in France. Newly-commissioned officers were not obliged to return to their original units, but could chose to join any of the regiments or corps of the British Army
. Spurling was one of two who chose to join the Royal Flying Corps
(RFC), the air arm of the British Army (the other was Henry Joseph Watlington ), although other Bermudians would reach the RFC by different routes (including another BVRC rifleman, later Major Cecil Montgomery-Moore
, who detached from the Corps in Bermuda, and who also earned the DFC in France
).
Lieutenant Spurling trained as a pilot, and was posted to 49 Squadron in July 1918, flying the DeHavilland
DH9
, a light bomber
with two crew members (a pilot and an observer, who doubled as a defensive gunner). By then, the Royal Flying Corps no longer existed, it having been merged with the Royal Naval Air Service
on 1 April 1918 to create the independent Royal Air Force
(RAF), to which service Spurling now belonged.
On the 23rd August 1918, Spurling was flying on a bombing mission when he became separated from his formation. Thinking he was over the British lines, he prepared to land on a German airfield near Lens
which he mistook for his own, but was attacked by a German Fokker D.VII
fighter
. He then saw a formation of thirty more of the Fokkers. Despite the disadvantage of his flying a bomber, and being vastly outnumbered, Spurling launched a single-handed attack (not forgetting his Observer, Sergeant Frank Bell
, real name George Stanley Bell), shooting down three of the German aircraft, while Sgt. Bell accounted for two more. Sharing Bell's kills, these five victories immediately made Spurling an ace. It was for this action that Spurling was awarded the DFC and Sgt Bell was awarded the DFM. Two days later Spurling shot down another D.VII over Mont Notre Dame.
, which was responsible for trans-Atlantic delivery of cargo and personnel, among other things. This was one of two RAF commands operating in Bermuda (from RAF Darrell's Island
, and Kindley Field), which had been an important staging point since the start of trans-Atlantic aviation. During this war, Spurling was credited with identifying a Nazi spy in Canada
.
Spurling was not the only Bermudian to serve in both wars. Other notable examples were: Major Cecil Montgomery-Moore
, DFC, a First World War fighter pilot who was the Commanding Officer of both the Bermuda Volunteer Engineers
, and the Bermuda Flying School
during the Second World War; Squadron Leader Bernard Logier Wilkinson, a pilot in the RFC during the First World War, who served in the Royal Canadian Air Force
during the Second World War; Captain Edgar Ward, who went to France with the BVRC's Second Contingent in 1916. He was a Warrant Officer during the Second World War, again going to the Lincolns in Europe with the BVRC's Second Contingent in 1943, and retired as a Captain in 1965.
Rowe and Ilys moved to Guernsey
in the 1970s. They planned to return to Bermuda, but he developed Alzheimers Disease, and died in England in 1984. His body was returned to Bermuda for burial.
Squadron Leader
Squadron Leader is a commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence. It is also sometimes used as the English translation of an equivalent rank in countries which have a non-English air force-specific rank structure. In these...
Arthur Rowe Spurling was a Bermudian
Bermudian
Bermudian or Bermudan may refer to:* Something of, or related to Bermuda* A person from Bermuda, or of Bermudian descent. For information about the Bermudian people, see Demographics of Bermuda and Culture of Bermuda. For specific Bermudians, see List of Bermudians.* Bermudian English, the variety...
who served during the First World War as an infantry
Infantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...
man and an aviator, becoming an ace
Flying ace
A flying ace or fighter ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down several enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The actual number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an "ace" has varied, but is usually considered to be five or more...
, credited with six aerial victories, and as a ferry
Ferry flying
Ferry flying refers to delivery flights for the purpose of returning an aircraft to base, moving an aircraft from one base of operations to another or moving an aircraft to or from a maintenance facility for repairs, overhaul or other work.-Ferry permit:...
pilot during the Second World War.
Rowe Spurling was born into a prominent Bermudian family in Hamilton
Hamilton, Bermuda
Hamilton is the capital of the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda. It is the territory's financial centre and a major port and tourist destination.-Geography:...
, in the British colony of Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
, on 19 May 1896.
First World War
When the UKUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
declared war on the Central Powers
Central Powers
The Central Powers were one of the two warring factions in World War I , composed of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria...
in August 1914, the part-time volunteer army units in Bermuda, the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps
Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps
The Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps was created in 1894 as an all-white racially segregated reserve for the British Regular Army infantry component of the Bermuda Garrison...
(BVRC) and the Bermuda Militia Artillery
Bermuda Militia Artillery
The Bermuda Militia Artillery was a unit of part-time soldiers organised in 1895 as a reserve for the Royal Garrison Artillery detachment of the Regular Army garrison in Bermuda.-Foundation:...
(BMA), were mobilised. Although they had to fulfil their roles as parts of the Bermuda Garrison
Bermuda Garrison
The Bermuda Garrison was the military establishment maintained on the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda by the regular British Army, and its local militia and voluntary reserves from 1701 to 1957. The Garrison existed primarily to defend the Royal Naval Dockyard and other facilities in Bermuda...
, both units immediately proposed sending drafts to the Western Front
Western Front
Western Front was a term used during the First and Second World Wars to describe the contested armed frontier between lands controlled by Germany to the east and the Allies to the west...
. The BVRC quickly formed a detachment in December 1914, which was to train in Bermuda over the winter before being dispatched across the Atlantic. This contingent was composed of volunteers who were already serving, as well as those who enlisted specifically for the Front. Rowe volunteered for the contingent in February 1915. The Contingent trained at Warwick Camp
Warwick Camp (Bermuda)
Warwick Camp was originally the rifle ranges and a training area used by units of the Bermuda Garrison based elsewhere in the colony. Today, the Camp is the home of the Bermuda Regiment. The base was located on a strip of land obtained during the mid-Nineteenth century by the War Office along the...
through the winter and Spring. It consisted of Captain Richard Tucker and eighty-eight other ranks.
The Contingent left Bermuda for England on 7 May 1915, travelling to Canada, then crossing the Atlantic in company with a much larger Canadian draft. It had been hoped that the Contingent could be attached to the Second Battalion of The Lincolnshire Regiment (2 Lincolns), which had been on Garrison in Bermuda when the War began. When the Contingent arrived at the Lincolns depot in Grimsby, the 2nd Battalion was already in France and it was attached to 1 Lincolns, instead. Captain Tucker carried written instructions from the War Office
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government, responsible for the administration of the British Army between the 17th century and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Defence...
that ensured that they remained together as a unit, under their own badge. Despite this, the riflemen were given regimental numbers by the Lincolns, Spurling's being 3/17150 (his old BVRC number was 989).
The contingent arrived in France on 23 June, the first colonial volunteer unit to reach the Front, as an extra company attached to 1 Lincolns, and remained as such til the following summer, by when its strength had been too reduced by casualties to compose a full company, having lost 50% of its remaining strength at Gueudecourt
Gueudecourt
Gueudecourt is a commune in the Somme department in Picardie in northern France.-History:During the Battle of the Somme, the town of Gueudecourt had comprised one of the most distant objectives for the British drive that opened on 15 September 1916, a drive that has come to be known as the Battle...
on 25 September 1916. The survivors were merged on 17 October 1916, with the thirty-three men of a Second Contingent of the BVRC, newly arrived from Bermuda, and all were retrained as Lewis gunners
Lewis Gun
The Lewis Gun is a World War I–era light machine gun of American design that was perfected and widely used by the British Empire. It was first used in combat in World War I, and continued in service with a number of armed forces through to the end of the Korean War...
.
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
. Spurling was one of two who chose to join the Royal Flying Corps
Royal Flying Corps
The Royal Flying Corps was the over-land air arm of the British military during most of the First World War. During the early part of the war, the RFC's responsibilities were centred on support of the British Army, via artillery co-operation and photographic reconnaissance...
(RFC), the air arm of the British Army (the other was Henry Joseph Watlington ), although other Bermudians would reach the RFC by different routes (including another BVRC rifleman, later Major Cecil Montgomery-Moore
Cecil Montgomery-Moore
Major Cecil Montgomery-Moore, DFC, was a Bermudian First World War fighter pilot, and commander of the Bermuda Volunteer Engineers and the Bermuda Flying School during the Second World War.-First World War:...
, who detached from the Corps in Bermuda, and who also earned the DFC in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
).
De Havilland
The de Havilland Aircraft Company was a British aviation manufacturer founded in 1920 when Airco, of which Geoffrey de Havilland had been chief designer, was sold to BSA by the owner George Holt Thomas. De Havilland then set up a company under his name in September of that year at Stag Lane...
DH9
Airco DH.9
The Airco DH.9 - also known after 1920 as the de Havilland DH.9 - was a British bomber used in the First World War...
, a light bomber
Bomber
A bomber is a military aircraft designed to attack ground and sea targets, by dropping bombs on them, or – in recent years – by launching cruise missiles at them.-Classifications of bombers:...
with two crew members (a pilot and an observer, who doubled as a defensive gunner). By then, the Royal Flying Corps no longer existed, it having been merged with the Royal Naval Air Service
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
on 1 April 1918 to create the independent Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
(RAF), to which service Spurling now belonged.
On the 23rd August 1918, Spurling was flying on a bombing mission when he became separated from his formation. Thinking he was over the British lines, he prepared to land on a German airfield near Lens
Lens
-Optics:*Lens , an optical element which converges or diverges light**Lens , a part of the eye**Corrective lens for correction of human vision***Contact lens, placed on the cornea of the eye**Photographic lens, a lens designed for use on a camera...
which he mistook for his own, but was attacked by a German Fokker D.VII
Fokker D.VII
The Fokker D.VII was a German World War I fighter aircraft designed by Reinhold Platz of the Fokker-Flugzeugwerke. Germany produced around 3,300 D.VII aircraft in the summer and autumn of 1918. In service, the D.VII quickly proved itself to be a formidable aircraft...
fighter
Fighter
Fighter or The Fighter may refer to:*Warrior, a person skilled in combat*Soldier, someone in the army*Fighter aircraft, a warplane designed to destroy or damage enemy warplanes in air-to-air combatFilms...
. He then saw a formation of thirty more of the Fokkers. Despite the disadvantage of his flying a bomber, and being vastly outnumbered, Spurling launched a single-handed attack (not forgetting his Observer, Sergeant Frank Bell
Frank Bell (aviator)
Sergeant Frank William Bell was actually George Stanley Bell. George had joined the territorial army in 1914 and was subsequently called up at the outbreak of World War II. Late in 1914 he deserted the army, but in 1915 he joined the Royal Flying Corps by changing his name and age, hence the...
, real name George Stanley Bell), shooting down three of the German aircraft, while Sgt. Bell accounted for two more. Sharing Bell's kills, these five victories immediately made Spurling an ace. It was for this action that Spurling was awarded the DFC and Sgt Bell was awarded the DFM. Two days later Spurling shot down another D.VII over Mont Notre Dame.
Second World War
After the First World War, Rowe returned to civil life in Bermuda. During the Second World War, however, he returned to the RAF, reaching the rank of Squadron Leader. He served in RAF Transport CommandRAF Transport Command
RAF Transport Command was a Royal Air Force command that controlled all transport aircraft of the RAF. It was established on 25 March 1943 by the renaming of the RAF Ferry Command, and was subsequently renamed RAF Air Support Command in 1967.-History:...
, which was responsible for trans-Atlantic delivery of cargo and personnel, among other things. This was one of two RAF commands operating in Bermuda (from RAF Darrell's Island
Royal Air Force, Bermuda, 1939-1945
The Royal Air Force operated from two locations in Bermuda during the Second World War. Bermuda's location had made it an important naval station since US independence, and, with the advent of the aeroplane, had made it as important to trans-Atlantic aviation in the decades before the Jet Age...
, and Kindley Field), which had been an important staging point since the start of trans-Atlantic aviation. During this war, Spurling was credited with identifying a Nazi spy in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
Spurling was not the only Bermudian to serve in both wars. Other notable examples were: Major Cecil Montgomery-Moore
Cecil Montgomery-Moore
Major Cecil Montgomery-Moore, DFC, was a Bermudian First World War fighter pilot, and commander of the Bermuda Volunteer Engineers and the Bermuda Flying School during the Second World War.-First World War:...
, DFC, a First World War fighter pilot who was the Commanding Officer of both the Bermuda Volunteer Engineers
Bermuda Volunteer Engineers
The Bermuda Volunteer Engineers was a part-time unit created between the two world wars to replace the Regular Royal Engineers detachment, which was withdrawn from the Bermuda Garrison in 1928.-The Military Garrison in Bermuda:...
, and the Bermuda Flying School
Bermuda Flying School
The Bermuda Flying School operated on Darrell's Island from 1940 to 1942. It trained Bermudian volunteers as pilots for the Royal Air Force and the Fleet Air Arm....
during the Second World War; Squadron Leader Bernard Logier Wilkinson, a pilot in the RFC during the First World War, who served in the Royal Canadian Air Force
Royal Canadian Air Force
The history of the Royal Canadian Air Force begins in 1920, when the air force was created as the Canadian Air Force . In 1924 the CAF was renamed the Royal Canadian Air Force and granted royal sanction by King George V. The RCAF existed as an independent service until 1968...
during the Second World War; Captain Edgar Ward, who went to France with the BVRC's Second Contingent in 1916. He was a Warrant Officer during the Second World War, again going to the Lincolns in Europe with the BVRC's Second Contingent in 1943, and retired as a Captain in 1965.
Post-War
After the Second World War, Spurling returned again to civilian life. He married in 1948 to Ilys Darrell, and operated a taxi fleet and the Rowe Spurling Paint Company Ltd, which still exists.Rowe and Ilys moved to Guernsey
Guernsey
Guernsey, officially the Bailiwick of Guernsey is a British Crown dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy.The Bailiwick, as a governing entity, embraces not only all 10 parishes on the Island of Guernsey, but also the islands of Herm, Jethou, Burhou, and Lihou and their islet...
in the 1970s. They planned to return to Bermuda, but he developed Alzheimers Disease, and died in England in 1984. His body was returned to Bermuda for burial.