| Miles Jeffery Game Day | |
| Birth Date: | 1 December 1896 |
| Birth Place: | St. Ives, Huntingdonshire, England |
| Death Place: | West of Dunkirk, France |
| Placeofburial Label: | Commemorated at |
| Placeofburial: | Chatham Naval Memorial, Kent, England |
| Allegiance: | United Kingdom |
| Branch: | Royal Navy |
| Serviceyears: | 1915–1918 |
| Rank: | Flight Commander |
| Unit: | No. 13 Squadron RNAS |
| Awards: | Distinguished Service Cross |
Flight Commander Miles Jeffery Game Day, (1 December 1896 – 27 February 1918) was a World War I flying ace credited with five aerial victories,[1] and also a war poet.
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).[2] He was educated at Sandroyd and Repton Schools.[3]
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. 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.[4] He was first stationed aboard the seaplane carrier, part of the Harwich Force, where he gained a reputation as a skilled and daring flyer,[5] and was promoted to flight lieutenant on 31 December 1916. Day chafed at the lack of activity at Harwich, and gained a transfer to the light cruiser .[6] Following her grounding in August 1917, he was posted to the experimental air station at RNAS Kingsnorth on the Isle of Grain.[7]
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.[1] On 27 February, he was shot down in flames into the sea about 25 miles west of Dunkirk by a German seaplane.[8]
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."[9]
A search was immediately launched, but no trace of him was found.[9] Having no known grave, he is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial, Kent, England.[10]
Day began writing poetry during his spare time, initially humorous verses for his fellow officers in the style of W. S. Gilbert,[11] but later, inspired by Rupert Brooke's The Old Vicarage, Grantchester, he began to compose longer serious poems.[5] 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.[12] "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.[2]
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,[13] and also in Cambridge Poets 1914-1920: an Anthology, compiled by Edward Davison, published in 1920.[14]