Richard Bell-Davies

Richard Bell Davies
Bell Davies during World War I
Born	19 May 1886 Kensington, London
Died	26 February 1966 (aged 79) RNH Haslar, Portsmouth
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	Royal Navy
Years of service	1901 - 1944
Rank	Vice Admiral
Battles/wars	World War I World War II
Awards	Victoria Cross Companion of the Order of the Bath Distinguished Service Order Air Force Cross Croix de Guerre (France)[disambiguation needed ] Order of Michael the Brave (Rumania)

Vice Admiral Richard Bell Davies VC, CB, DSO, AFC (19 May 1886 – 26 February 1966), also known as Richard Bell Davies was a British First World War fighter pilot and Royal Navy officer. He was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

Background

Born in Kensington, London, Bell Davies was orphaned by the age of six and was brought up by an uncle, a doctor. Davies then enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1901 and in 1910 took private flying lessons, and in 1913 he was accepted into the Royal Naval Air Service.

In the early days of the war Davies took part in a number of raids on the German submarine bases at Zeebrugge, earning a DSO. On 23 January 1915 a low-level attack to drop bombs on the submarines alongside the Mole at Zeebrugge resulted in Bell-Davies receiving a severe bullet wound in his thigh, although he managed to land safely despite this injury.

Davies was then posted to the Dardanelles, and earned two mentions in dispatches.

Earning the Victoria Cross

He was awarded the Victoria Cross on 1 January 1916 for an action at Ferrijik Junction, Bulgaria on 19 November 1915. He was 29 years old, and a Squadron Commander in 3 Squadron, Royal Naval Air Service. His citation read:

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.^[1]

This was the first combat search and rescue by aircraft in history. Like the search and rescue efforts of the future, Bell-Davies action sprang from the fervent desire to keep a compatriot from capture or death at the hands of the enemy; unlike most of those future efforts, it was a one-man impromptu show that succeeded because of a peculiarity in construction of his aircraft. The Nieuport 10 he was flying was a single seat model which had had its front cockpit decked over. When Bell Davies picked him up under rifle fire, Smylie wriggled past Bell-Davies and through his controls into the tiny roofed-over front compartment. Smylie was so thoroughly wedged among the controls that, upon landing, it took two hours to extricate him.^[2]

Post World War I

Bell Davies achieved the rank of Vice Admiral upon retiring on 29 May 1941, his last appointment being Rear Admiral, Naval Air Stations (HMS Daedalus). He then joined the Royal Naval Reserve with a reduction in rank to Commander, and served as a Convoy Commodore and then as commissioning captain of the escort carrier HMS Dasher and the trials carrier HMS Pretoria Castle, until leaving the RNR in 1944.

He died at RNH Haslar in Gosport, Hampshire. His Victoria Cross is on display at the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovil, Somerset.

See also

Biography portal

• List of firsts in aviation
• Sailor in the Air: The Memoirs of Vice-Admiral Richard Bell Davies, VC RN. Richard Bell Davies, 1967. Digitized 21 Sep 2007. ISBN not available

References

• Monuments To Courage (David Harvey, 1999)
• The Register of the Victoria Cross (This England, 1997)
• VCs of the First World War - Air VCs (P G Cooksley, 1999)
• VCs of the First World War - Gallipoli (Stephen Snelling, 1995)
• Leave No Man Behind: The Saga of Combat Search and Rescue. George Galdorisi, Thomas Phillips. MBI Publishing Company, 2009. ISBN 0-7603-2392-5, ISBN 978-0-7603-2392-2.

External links

• Location of grave and VC medal (Hampshire)
• Richard Bell-Davies at Find a Grave
• Royal Navy (RN) Officers 1939-1945
• Sailor in The Air: The Memoirs of the World's First Carrier Pilot Seaforth Publishing