The flower of British Youth

I finished Arthur Rhys Davids story a little while back and have had time to reflect on the tale and all within it. And what a story it is; a peculiar character viewed through today's eyes. Shaped by what looks like a cloistered early life and a rumbustious, demanding schooling at the hands of Eton's masters, Arthur made it easily through flying training to the Western Front to discover his métier - combat flying. He admits to hating the killing and longing to return to the academic world, his first love. It's clear he didn't make friends easily, from the texts this seems to be through choice as he had little time for light banter and the normal run of a fighter pilot's social activity. He was nearer to Ball in this respect I think, though Ball was no academic.
I admire Arthur for his ability to adapt to his surroundings, his obvious courage and sense of duty. I think he would have made a fascinating guest at a small, well chosen dinner table. What a shame that like so many of his contemporaries, he didn't make that dinner gong, nor return to the classics, his first and enduring love. He could have said and done so much more...  Perhaps we should leave regret behind, Cecil Lewis in the company of notable others told their story and left an exquisite record for us all.

Arthur died on October 12th 1917 and has no known grave. He was 'almost certainly shot down by Leutnant Karl Gallwitz, at the time acting Staffelführer of Jasta Boelke' (Revell, 2010). He returned to earth within an area later heavily shelled and fought across during the battles for Passchendaele Ridge.

A scrimmage in a Border Station

A canter down some dark defile

Two thousand pounds of education

Drops to a ten-rupee jezail.

                      Rudyard Kipling

Reference

Revell, A (1984) Brief Glory, the life of Arthur Rhys Davids, DSO MC, William Kimber & Co, London.

Rarified Atmosphere

It has always struck me how our impressions and visualizations of the history of war are coloured by the media that recorded it and the attitudes of those who wrote it. The Great War was, to all intents and purposes, fought in black and white running at 1.25 the speed of reality. What is sometimes difficult to appreciate given the power of this media, is that all wars are fought in Technicolor and full surround-sound with no volume control. Hot is hot, cold is cold and tortured spinning steel has no respect for rank, title or script - as there isn’t one. To get the full benefit and understand it at a visceral level, you had to be there really, which in our case is impossible. Enough of the obvious.

 I am reading Alex Revell's brilliantly researched history of 56 Squadron (Revell, 1995) and his story of the short life of Arthur Rhys Davids, the scholastic RFC SE5a ace who flew with '56' during 1917. All this as background work for a closer look at Arthur Keen about whom little has been written.