Richard Bell Davies

Naval aviation in the Royal Navy emerged through the initiative of officers whose technical curiosity outpaced contemporary Admiralty doctrine. Among the earliest of these pioneers was Richard Bell Davies, an officer whose service spanned the development of shipboard flight from pre-war experimental canvas biplanes to operational fleet carriers during the global conflicts of the twentieth century. Born in Kensington, London, on 19 May 1886, he was orphaned before his sixth year following the deaths of his father, William Bell Davies, a civil engineer, and his mother, Mary Emma Beale. Raised by his uncle, Dr Edwin Clifford Beale, he completed his schooling at Bradfield College in Berkshire before entering HMS Britannia as a naval cadet in April 1901. As an officer commissioned into the Royal Navy during the Edwardian era, he held no service number; commissioned officers in the Royal Navy were identified solely by name, rank, and seniority in the official Navy List, while numerical service numbers were restricted to ratings and enlisted men. Commissioned as a sub-lieutenant in December 1905 and advanced to lieutenant in June 1908, he completed sea tours aboard battleships and cruisers in the Mediterranean and Home Fleets. During the fleet summer manoeuvres of 1910 off Mount's Bay, he watched Claude Grahame-White fly a Farman biplane over the fleet, an encounter that prompted him to take private flying instruction at Brooklands. Accepted into the Naval Wing of the Royal Flying Corps in 1913, he received an appointment as a squadron commander upon the establishment of the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) in July 1914.

The outbreak of the First World War placed Davies in operational command on the Western Front, where he led No. 3 Squadron RNAS in coastal patrols and bombing strikes against German maritime positions in occupied Flanders. Operating from Dunkirk, he repeatedly targeted enemy submarine pens at Ostend and Zeebrugge under intense anti-aircraft fire. On 23 January 1915, while piloting a Maurice Farman on a low-level bombing strike against the mole at Zeebrugge, an enemy bullet tore through his thigh during the initial approach. Disregarding severe loss of blood and pain, he maintained control of his machine for an hour, reached his target, discharged his payload of eight bombs at close range, and brought his aircraft safely back to base. For this exploit, he was appointed a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO), gazetted on 9 April 1915.

Following his convalescence, Davies deployed to the Mediterranean theatre in support of the Gallipoli campaign, operating from improvised airstrips on Tenedos and Imbros. In November 1915, Allied intelligence indicated that the Central Powers were using the newly reopened Berlin–Constantinople railway to transport heavy munitions to Ottoman forces. To sever this artery, Allied command directed air strikes against the Maritsa River railway bridge and junctions near the border between Bulgaria and Ottoman-held Thrace. On 19 November 1915, Squadron Commander Davies, flying a single-seat Nieuport 10 whose forward cockpit opening had been sheeted over, flew alongside Flight Sub-Lieutenant Gilbert Formby Smylie to attack Ferrijik Junction. The highest gallantry decoration awarded to Davies was the Victoria Cross, conferred for his conduct during that raid. The full official citation, published in the Second Supplement to The London Gazette of 31 December 1915 (Issue 29423, 1 January 1916, page 86), reads verbatim:

"Admiralty, 1st January, 1916. The KING has been graciously pleased to approve of the grant of the Victoria Cross to Squadron-Commander Richard Bell Davies, D.S.O., R.N., and of the Distinguished Service Cross to Flight Sub-Lieutenant Gilbert Formby Smylie, R.N., in recognition of their behaviour in the following circumstances: — On the 19th November these two officers carried out an air attack on Ferrijik Junction. Flight Sub-Lieutenant Smylie's machine was received by very heavy fire and brought down. The pilot planed down over the station, releasing all his bombs except one, which failed to drop, simultaneously at the station from a very low altitude. Thence he continued his descent into the marsh. On alighting he saw the one unexploded bomb, and set fire to his machine, knowing that the bomb would ensure its destruction. He then proceeded towards Turkish territory. At this moment he perceived Squadron-Commander Davies descending, and fearing that he would come down near the burning machine and thus risk destruction from the bomb, Flight Sub-Lieutenant Smylie ran back and from a short distance exploded the bomb by means of a pistol bullet. Squadron-Commander Davies descended at a safe distance from the burning machine, took up Sub-Lieutenant Smylie, in spite of the near approach of a party of the enemy, and returned to the aerodrome, a feat of airmanship that can seldom have been equalled for skill and gallantry."

Davies had observed Smylie's plight from the air and elected to land his aircraft on the marshland despite approaching Bulgarian infantry. Smylie wriggled past Davies and through the rudder bar and flight controls into the cramped cavity beneath the forward decking, remaining wedged while Davies opened the throttle, took off under rifle fire, and flew forty miles across the Aegean back to Imbros. This single-handed extraction represents the first successful combat search and rescue mission conducted by an aircraft in military history.

Reassigned to the Western Front in 1916, Davies directed flying operations for No. 3 Wing RNAS at Luxeuil-les-Bains, conducting long-range strategic bombing raids against industrial complexes in the Saar basin. In 1917, he was appointed senior flying officer in the seaplane carrier HMS Campania, attached to the Grand Fleet, where he oversaw developmental deck landings, arrester trials, and early aircraft catapult designs. His technical work and test flying were rewarded with the Air Force Cross in 1919. His wartime service was further recognised by France with the Legion of Honour in the grade of Chevalier and the Croix de Guerre with bronze palm, and by Romania with the Order of Michael the Brave, 3rd Class.

Retaining his naval commission after the amalgamation of the RNAS into the Royal Air Force, Davies served as First Lieutenant of the battlecruiser HMS Lion and headed the Air Section of the Naval Staff between 1920 and 1924. Following sea tours as Executive Officer of the battleship HMS Royal Sovereign and commanding officer of the heavy cruiser HMS Cornwall on the China Station, he attained flag rank as rear-admiral in 1938 and supervised British naval air stations from Lee-on-Solent. Appointed a Companion of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath (CB) in 1939, he was placed on the retired list on 29 May 1941 with the rank of vice-admiral. He accepted a voluntary reduction in rank to commander in the Royal Naval Reserve to return to active operational duty at sea, directing North Atlantic merchant convoys as a Convoy Commodore. He commanded the escort carrier HMS Dasher during Operation Torch in 1942, and the trials aircraft carrier HMS Pretoria Castle through late 1944, testing deck operations for high-performance naval fighters. Vice-Admiral Richard Bell Davies died on 26 February 1966 at the Royal Naval Hospital, Haslar, at the age of seventy-nine.