Jeffery Day

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox military person Flight Commander Miles Jeffery Game Day Template:Post-nominals, (1 December 1896 – 27 February 1918) was a World War I flying ace credited with five aerial victories,<ref name="theaerodrome">Template:Cite web</ref> and also a war poet.

Background and education

Jeffery Day, as he was commonly known, was born in St. Ives, Huntingdonshire, one of four children born to George Dennis Day (1860–1945), a solicitor, and his wife Margaret Jane (née Davis) (1862–1945).<ref name="stivesrowingclub">Template:Cite web</ref> He was educated at Sandroyd and Repton Schools.<ref name="Day7">Day (1919), p. 7.</ref>

Military career

Day joined the Royal Navy as a probationary flight sub-lieutenant, and was confirmed in the rank of flight sub-lieutenant on 21 August 1915.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> He received the Royal Aero Club Aviators' Certificate No. 1949 after flying a Caudron biplane at the Royal Naval Flying School, Eastchurch, on 2 October 1915.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

He was first stationed aboard the seaplane carrier Template:HMS, part of the Harwich Force, where he gained a reputation as a skilled and daring flyer,<ref name="Day16">Day (1919), p. 16.</ref> and was promoted to flight lieutenant on 31 December 1916.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> Day chafed at the lack of activity at Harwich, and gained a transfer to the light cruiser Template:HMS.<ref name="Day18">Day (1919), p. 18.</ref> Following her grounding in August 1917, he was posted to the experimental air station at RNAS Kingsnorth on the Isle of Grain.<ref name="Day19">Day (1919), p. 19.</ref>

Day was already an experienced pilot when he joined No. 13 Squadron RNAS, based at Dunkirk, on 19 December 1917. Between 3 January and 19 February 1918 he scored five victories while flying a Sopwith Camel.<ref name="theaerodrome"/> On 27 February, he was shot down in flames into the sea about 25 miles west of Dunkirk by a German seaplane.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

According to his commanding officer's report:

"...He was shot down by six German aircraft which he attacked single-handed, out to sea. He had out-distanced his flight, I think because he wished to break the [enemy's] formation, in order to make it easier for the less experienced people behind him to attack. He hit the enemy and they hit his machine, which burst into flames; but, not a bit flurried, he nose-dived, flattened out, and landed perfectly on the water. He climbed out of his machine and waved his fellow-pilots back to their base; being in aeroplanes [not sea-planes] they could not assist him."<ref name="Day8">Day (1919), p. 8.</ref>

A search was immediately launched, but no trace of him was found.<ref name="Day8"/> Having no known grave, he is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial, Kent, England.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Honours and awards

Distinguished Service Cross

Flight Lieutenant (acting Flight Commander) Miles Jeffrey Game Day, RNAS (since killed).

For great skill and bravery as a fighting pilot. On 25 January he attacked, single-handed, six enemy triplanes, one of which he shot down. On 2 February 1918 he attacked and destroyed an enemy two-seater machine on reconnaissance at 18,000 feet. He destroyed several enemy machines in a short space of time, and, in addition, had numerous indecisive engagements.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>

Poetry

Day began writing poetry during his spare time, initially humorous verses for his fellow officers in the style of W. S. Gilbert,<ref name="Day14">Day (1919), p. 14.</ref> but later, inspired by Rupert Brooke's The Old Vicarage, Grantchester, he began to compose longer serious poems.<ref name="Day16"/> Only three of these; "On the Wings of the Morning", "An Airman's Dream" and part of "To My Brother", were published in his lifetime, the first in Cornhill, and the other two in The Spectator.<ref name="Day63">Day (1919), p. 63.</ref> "To My Brother" was inspired by the death of his older brother Dennis Ivor Day, who was serving as a second lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery when he was shot by a sniper at Vermelles on 25 September 1915, finally dying from the injury on 7 October.<ref name="stivesrowingclub"/>

Day's collected poems were published post-war, and two of his poems were anthologized in A Treasury of War Poetry, British and American Poems of the World War, 1914-1919, edited by George Herbert Clarke,<ref>Template:Cite wikisource</ref> and also in Cambridge Poets 1914-1920: an Anthology, compiled by Edward Davison, published in 1920.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Bibliography

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