Jeffery Day

{{Short description|American World War I flying ace}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}  {{Infobox military person | name = Miles Jeffery Game Day | image = Jeffery Day frontispiece from Poems and Rhymes.jpg | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1896|12|1|df=y}} | death_date = {{Death date and age|1918|02|27|1896|12|01|df=y}} | birth_place = St. Ives, Huntingdonshire, England | death_place = West of Dunkirk, France | burial_label = Commemorated at | burial_place = Chatham Naval Memorial, Kent, England | burial_coordinates =  | nickname = | allegiance = United Kingdom | branch = Royal Navy | service_years = 1915–1918 | rank = Flight Commander | unit = {{HMS|Vindex|1915|6}}<br/>{{HMS|Cassandra|1916|6}}<br/>No. 13 Squadron RNAS | commands = | battles = | awards = Distinguished Service Cross | relations = | other_work = }} Flight Commander '''Miles Jeffery Game Day''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|DSC}}, (1 December 1896 – 27 February 1918) was a World War I flying ace credited with five aerial victories,<ref name="theaerodrome">{{cite web |url=http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/day2.php |title=Miles Jeffrey Game Day |work=The Aerodrome |year=2014 |accessdate=17 November 2014 }}</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">{{cite web |url=http://www.stivesrowingclub.com/dennisivorday.php |title=Dennis Ivor Day, oarsman, of St Ives & Cambridge |first=M. |last=Stephenson |work=St Ives Rowing Club |year=2014 |accessdate=18 November 2014 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129070825/http://www.stivesrowingclub.com/dennisivorday.php |archivedate=29 November 2014 }}</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>{{London Gazette |date=9 November 1915 |issue=29360 |page=11044}}</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>{{cite journal |url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1915/1915%20-%200850.html |title=Aviators' Certificates |issue=858 |volume=VII |page=850 |journal=Flight |date=5 November 1915 |accessdate=17 November 2014 }}</ref> He was first stationed aboard the seaplane carrier {{HMS|Vindex|1915|2}}, 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>{{London Gazette |date=29 December 1916 |supp=y |issue=29886 |page=14 |nolink=yes}}</ref> Day chafed at the lack of activity at Harwich, and gained a transfer to the light cruiser {{HMS|Cassandra|1916|2}}.<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>{{cite book |first1=Christopher F. |last1=Shores |first2=Norman |last2=Franks |authorlink2=Norman Franks |first3=Russell |last3=Guest |title=Above the Trenches: A Complete Record of the Fighter Aces and Units of the British Empire Air Forces 1915–1920 |location=London, UK |publisher=Grub Street |year=1990 |isbn=0-948817-19-4 |name-list-style=amp }}</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>{{cite web |url=http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/3047280/DAY,%20MILES%20JEFFREY%20GAME |title=Day, Miles Jeffrey Game |work=Commonwealth War Graves Commission |year=2014 |accessdate=18 November 2014}}</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>{{London Gazette |city=e |date=19 March 1918 |issue=13225 |page=1057}}</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>{{cite wikisource |title=A Treasury of War Poetry, British and American Poems of the World War, 1914-1919 |wslink=A treasury of war poetry, British and American poems of the world war, 1914-1919 |editor1-first=George Herbert |editor1-last=Clarke |year=1917 |publisher=Hodder & Stoughton |location=London}}</ref> and also in ''Cambridge Poets 1914-1920: an Anthology'', compiled by Edward Davison, published in 1920.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://exhibits.lib.byu.edu/wwi/anthologies/anthologies.html |title=Anthologies |work=Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University |year=2013 |accessdate=18 November 2014}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==Bibliography== * {{cite book |first=Jeffery |last=Day |title=Poems and Rhymes |location=London |publisher=Sidgwick & Jackson, Ltd |year=1919 |url=https://archive.org/details/poemsrhymes00dayj |accessdate=18 November 2014}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Day, Jeffery}} Category:1896 births Category:1918 deaths Category:Military personnel from Cambridgeshire Category:People from St Ives, Cambridgeshire Category:People educated at Sandroyd School Category:People educated at Repton School Category:Royal Naval Air Service aviators Category:Royal Navy officers of World War I Category:British World War I flying aces Category:20th-century English poets Category:British World War I poets Category:20th-century English male writers Category:British military personnel killed in World War I Category:Recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom) Category:English male poets