Arthur Rhys-Davids

Arthur Percival Foley Rhys-Davids
Lieut. A. P. F. Rhys Davids, DSO, MC drawn by William Orpen, October 1917
Born	26 September 1897 Forest Hill, London, England
Died	27 October 1917 Roeselare, West Flanders
Allegiance	British Empire
Years of service	1916–1917
Rank	Lieutenant
Unit	56 Squadron
Battles/wars	First World War
Awards	Distinguished Service Order Military Cross & Bar

Arthur Percival Foley Rhys-Davids DSO, MC & Bar (26 September 1897 – 27 October 1917) was a British 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 in the same fight.

Family background

Rhys-Davids' father (Thomas William Rhys Davids) - the son of a Welsh father and an English mother - served in the British civil service in Ceylon in the 1860s and 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. Rhys-Davids' mother, an Englishwoman by the name of Caroline Augusta Foley Rhys Davids was also a Pali scholar.

Early life

Arthur Rhys-Davids was an only son, though with two sisters. He was born in Forest Hill, London, where the family lived until 1904 when his father was appointed a Professor of Comparative Religion at Manchester University. Rhys-Davids struggled to overcome a stammer, but was a successful student throughout his academic career, due to a drive that pushed him to the brink of collapse.

In 1911, he was enrolled at Eton College as a King's Scholar. Because of a limit, he had to wait for one of the 70 King's Scholars to leave before he could fill the vacancy. Despite poor health—he was asthmatic and had other unspecified maladies—he took part in Football, Cricket, the Eton Wall Game and the Eton Field Game. He was also an accomplished Rugby player, usually as a half back. He joined the Officer Training Corps, and a visiting coach and his Classics tutor helped him overcome his stuttering.

Academically, Rhys-Davids was a specialist in Classics; his interests included music and English Literature, especially poetry. When he left Eton in 1916, he was the top student, and as such the captain of the school. He was also a member of "Pop", the Eton Society. He won the Newcastle Scholarship and intended to take up his place at Balliol College, Oxford as an Exhibitioner when he returned from the war.

War service

As a member of the Eton College Officer Training Corps, Rhys-Davids had been spared from the Conscription Act that had taken effect at the beginning of 1916. However, the Royal Flying Corps was then recruiting, with an especial interest in athletes.

Rhys-Davids joined the Royal Flying Corps on 28 August 1916 as a Second Lieutenant in the Special Reserve to study aeronautics, still in Oxford. His courses included the theory of flight, rigging, artillery observation, photography, and Gnome (brand name) engines and instruments. He then reported to the Central Flying School, Upavon, Wiltshire for flight training. Major Richard Blomfield was recruiting promising pilots with a musical interest for 56 Squadron. Blomfield selected Rhys-Davids, who moved with the squadron to France in April 1917.

Rhys-Davids' beginning 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 a month.

His first aerial combat on 7 May 1917 was harrowing and disastrous. 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 plane whose damaged engine suddenly quit. He was doubly fortunate. Kurt Wolff, the German pilot on his tail, pulled away from a sure kill and let him live. Rhys-Davids then managed a powerless dead stick landing safely behind British lines.

On the 23rd of May, Rhys-Davids shot an Albatros D.III fighter down out of control. The next day, he scored three victories in an hour. One day later, he got his fifth victory and became 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).

The next month, a famed ace transferred into 56 Squadron and became B Flight's commander. James Thomas Byford McCudden, subsequently a Victoria Cross holder and most decorated ace in British aviation, had risen from the enlisted ranks and survived three years of increasingly deadly aerial warfare. McCudden lectured Rhys-Davids about unnecessary risks and their consequences. Rhys-Davids would confess to his mother that once in the air he became a different man; by his own admission he could be too daring for safety's sake.

By the end of July, Rhys-Davids had 13 victories and a Bar to his Military Cross. On 3 September, he destroyed an Albatros D.V. On the 5th, he shot down two more D.Vs and drove another one out of battle, all within 45 minutes. On 9 September, he scored again.

On 23 September, Rhys-Davids was the victor in one of the most famous dogfights of aviation. Werner Voss, considered by many to be as skillful an ace as Manfred von Richthofen, single-handedly engaged Rhys-Davids, James McCudden, Gerald Bowman, Reginald Hoidge, Richard Maybery, Keith Muspratt, and Verschoyle Cronyn. Another German ace, Karl Menckhoff of Jasta 3 saw the encounter and tried to assist Voss but Rhys-Davids shot up his Albatross D.V, Menckhoff crash-landing unharmed.

Voss used the superior maneuverability and tighter turning radius of his Fokker F.I to stand off the seven British aces and put bullets into every one of their aircraft. However, the battle ended after a near midair collision between Voss and Rhys-Davids, who briefly found himself behind Voss and fired. The German plane unaccountably stopped evading fire, presumably because the pilot was hit. Voss's Fokker F.I plunged to the earth and was smashed to bits. Along with Menckhoff's plane, that brought Rhys-Davids' score to 20. McCudden recalled him saying of the remarkable Voss, "If only I could have brought him down alive."

During the next three weeks, Rhys-Davids would gain five more victories, his last on 17 October 1917. His final tally was 25 enemy aircraft ; 2 captured, 4 and 2 shared destroyed, and 14 and 3 shared 'out of control'.

Final flight

On 27 October 1917 Rhys-Davids was promoted to lieutenant, backdated to the 1 September 1917. That same day he took off on a routine patrol and was last seen flying east of Roeselare. The German Air Service credited Karl Gallwitz, an ace pilot of Jasta Boelcke, with shooting him down.

Rhys-Davids' family anxiously hoped he had survived and been captured. However, a plane from Jasta Boelke flew over his aerodrome and dropped a message giving the details of his death and of his burial with military honours. The Royal Flying Corps declared Rhys-Davids killed in action on the date he disappeared. His mother received official confirmation on 18 March 1918, when her son was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. In 1920, German authorities returned Rhys-Davids' notecase to his family.

World War I aviation scholars established the site of Rhys-Davids' death by comparing Karl Gallwitz's combat report with other documents. Rhys-Davids crashed about five miles from the impact point of Werner Voss's Fokker just one month earlier.

Rhys-Davids' name appears on the Arras Flying Services Memorial.

Quotes

“

The first time I saw him was at the aerodrome at Estrée-Blanche, Pas-de-Calais. I watched him land in his machine, just back from over the lines. Out he got, stuck his hands in his pockets, and laughed and talked about the flight with Hoidge and others of the patrol, and his Major, Blomfield. A fine lad Rhys Davids, with a far-seeing, clear eye... was terribly anxious for the war to be over, so that he could get to Oxford. He had been captain of Eton the year before, so he was an all-round chap, and must have been a magnificent pilot. The 56th Squadron was very sad when he was reported missing, and refused to believe for one moment that he had been killed till they got the certain news. It was a great loss.

”

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.

“

...He (Captain Maybery) and Captain Ball and Lieutenant Rhys Davids did more harm to the morale of the German Flying Corps than any other fifteen pilots between them. They all, always, took on any odds. They were too brave and reckless.

”

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

• http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/arthur-rhys-davids/ Accessed 8 September 2008.
• http://www.firstworldwar.com/bio/rhysdavids.htm Accessed 8 September 2008.
• http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/rhys_davids.php Accessed 8 September 2008.
• http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=104930 Accessed 21 October 2008.