Air Force Cross, GVR cypher, mounted on a pin and housed in it’s fitted John Pinches of London case of issue, the reverse of the case privately labelled ‘Captain Arthur George Albert Davis, AFC, Royal Air Force & Devonshire Regiment (Gazette dated 1st January 1919). who had originally been commissioned as a Second Lieutenantint he 4th Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, he wouuld be appointed to a permanent comission in the Ruglar Army with the Devonshire Regiment in March 1916 before he was seconded to the Royal Flying Corps as a Flying Officer (Observer) on 14th May 1916 and is recorded as extinguishing an enemy searchlight near Harnes serving with 18 Squadron in a F.E. 2b piloted by Lieutenant G.N. Teale on 11th July 1916. He would pass as a Pilot and proceeded to France with 35 Squadron in January 1917 and was wounded in action during the Second Battle of Arrason 10th April 19117. He would return to France in March 1918 and flew with 88 and 59 Squadrons before taking up an appointment as an instructor at R.A.F. Manston in September 1918, being awarded teh Air Force Cross in the London Gazette of 1st January 1919.
Air Force Cross, GVR cypher, mounted on a pin and housed in it’s fitted John Pinches of London case of issue, the reverse of the case privately labelled ‘Captain Arthur George Albert Davis, AFC, Royal Air Force & Devonshire Regiment (Gazette dated 1st January 1919)
Condition: some light wear to case, Nearly Extremely Fine
Arthur George Albert Davis was born in St. Aldates, Oxford in 1893 and served for two years prior to the Great War with the Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars, before being commissioned Second Lieutenant in the 4th Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, on 14 September 1914. Having passed the Machine Gun Course he was attached to the 1st Entrenching Battalion, British Expeditionary Force, on the Western in June 1915. Appointed to a permanent commission in the regular army with the Devonshire Regiment on March 1916, he was seconded to the Royal Flying Corps as Flying Officer (Observer) on 14 May 1916, and is recorded as ‘observer flying at 300 feet when he extinguished with his machine-gun an enemy searchlight near Harnes serving with 18 Squadron in a F.E. 2b piloted by Lieutenant G.N. Teale on 11 July 1916’.
Returning to England to undergo the Pilots Course at Oxford in August 1916, having passed as a pilot he proceeded to France with 35 Squadron in January 1917 and was wounded in action during the Second Battle of Arras on 10 April 1917. Returning to England and promoted Flight Commander, temporary Captain, he was appointed Flying Instructor with 17 and 38 Squadrons in August 1917. Returning to France in March 1918 he flew with 88 and 59 Squadrons before once again taking up an appointment as an Instructor at the Observer Training School at R.A.F. Manston in September 1918, being awarded the Air Force Cross in January 1919. Transferring to 97 Squadron he proceeded with them to India in July 1919. Posted to the 2nd Battalion Devonshire Regiment , then stationed in Quetta, on 1 November 1919, he relinquished his temporary Royal Air Force commission on return to Army duties on 5 February 1920. Posted to the 1st Battalion, Devonshire Regiment at Devonport on 6 March 1920 he finally relinquished his commission with the rank of Captain on 22 July 1921. In civilian life he took up employment as a Motor Car Dealer, dying from bronchitis at the early age of 32 at Paddington, London on 30 March 1926.
