Lionel Lee-Davey RIP

Kyt · Mar 22, 2008

Lionel Lee-Davey - Telegraph

Lionel Lee-Davey, who has died aged 85, served as a squadron leader during the Second World War and later played a leading international role in popularising the caravan.

Lee-Davey's passionate but lightly worn patriotism, his good humour and taste for adventure, epitomised the young pilots of his generation. It was typical that in old age he volunteered for duty in both Iraq wars. In 2003 he gave an interview for The Oldie which captured the fun as well as the harsh realities of wartime service.

Lionel Edward ("Lee") Davey - he later adopted his nickname as a surname - was born on April 18 1922 at Borough Green, Kent. His father owned a number of local garages and Lee was brought up on "a diet of cars, motorbikes and engines". As a boy he would don his father's overcoat and hat to make him look grown-up enough to chauffeur his older sisters around the country.

He was educated at King's School, Rochester, and at 18 applied for an interview with the RAF selection board - apprehensively, since he had heard its members were biased towards public-school sporting heroes: "I was bloody awful at sport; so I said I'd been captain of cricket and captain of rugger." He was selected.

At training school Lee-Davey scraped through the written exams, but his mechanical knowledge gave him the advantage when confronted with an aircraft. One test, starting an engine by swinging the propeller, especially sorted the swots from the flyers. He succeeded first time, whereas some of those who had shone at trigonometry and theory of flight heaved away throughout the afternoon to no avail.

Trainees had to fly solo after seven and a half hours. They were then sent to complete the course in Commonwealth countries, as the RAF was fully operational. Lee-Davey was posted to Canada. He and his fellow trainees were treated like heroes when they travelled to Alberta by train. "We used to stop at these villages with floodlit skating rinks full of graceful girls in short skirts - you can't imagine the effect after the black-out in Britain."

At remote and snowbound Red Deer, the senior trainees brought the new boys down to earth. "You'll like it here," they said, "about three or four blokes get killed on every course." Lee-Davey won his pilot's wings in Canada and was among those chosen for a pioneer recruitment drive. A happy memory was of driving around Toronto at the wheel of one of several white drop-head Cadillacs placed at the group's disposal, after the customary red-carpet, brass-band welcome.

Training and recruiting combined when Lee-Davey flew in a V-for-victory formation of bombers dropping propaganda leaflets over Montreal. They went so low that the inhabitants thought it was an enemy attack. As a climax to the performance the wing commander led them in line astern under the St Lawrence Bridge, not part of the pre-flight briefing.

Newly-commissioned pilots helped the war effort by flying a bomber home, which was considered a safer delivery option than by sea. Lee-Davey brought back a medium-range Lockheed Ventura.

It was a hazardous assignment. Apart from the inexperience of the 19-year-old pilots, the flight was largely over water, out of radio contact, and required a notoriously difficult landfall in Iceland. Of 12 Venturas, two were never seen again and two crash-landed in Ireland.

Back in Britain Lee-Davey served with Coastal Command, escorting Atlantic convoys and patrolling for U-boats, from operational stations in Britain and then Gibraltar. Coastal Command was navigationally very testing but also the least glamorous of the sections, as was suggested by the dress code: Fighter Command undid the top button of their tunics; Bomber Command had a whistle under the lapel; Coastal Command undid the bottom button because, as the saying went, they "always got stuffed".

Lee-Davey especially recalled the camaraderie of his time in Gibraltar: the mess nights, with airmen standing by to swab the floors as the officers let loose with fire extinguishers and soda water siphons. One evening finished with a bonfire of the furniture. Next morning a notice appeared inviting names so that repairs could be added to mess bills; first to sign was the station commander.

There were bleaker moments, such as the night an airman cracked up and machine-gunned the airfield when Lee-Davey was duty officer. It pleased him that combat fatigue today is treated rather than punished.

At the end of 1944 Lee-Davey was stationed at St Ivel doing a course on the new ground control approach system (GCA), by which planes could be talked down in bad weather.

One rough night two returning Halifax bombers reported that no aerodrome would let them land because of poor visibility. As it was an emergency, Lee-Davey guided them in using GCA without consulting his senior officer. He could have been court-martialled. Instead he was promoted squadron leader at the age of 22 and sent to RAF Cranwell as senior flying control officer, Training Command, under Wing Commander "Batchey" Atcherley.

Lee-Davey was offered a permanent commission when war ended, but chose to return to civvy street, where he formed the Lee-Davey (Caravan) Group. It became one of Europe's leading caravan and car distributors. The post-war period was the golden age of motor rallying, and in 1956 the British Caravan Club initiated a Caravan Road Rally, which grew almost as popular as the RAC motor rally. Lee-Davey was an enthusiastic motor club racer and the Lee-Davey team competed in the Caravan Road Rally from its inception, finally winning it outright in 1976.

It was the last event. Thrashing caravans around the countryside and racing circuits at more than 100mph with frequent roll-overs attracted huge crowds, but the National Caravan Club committee did not find the publicity compatible with its sedate code of conduct for ordinary owners.

Lee-Davey disagreed. He always thought the rallies helped to dispel the "frumpy image" which he believed deterred younger buyers. The publicity generated by his rally team significantly contributed to Lee-Davey (Caravan) Group attaining market leadership.

Princess Margaret coined the term "park home" in conversation with Lee-Davey, when he was her host as chairman of the National Caravan Council (1981-84).

Lee-Davey was a keen rally driver in the postwar years and remained a self-confessed "petrolhead" after his retirement. He continued to deal in and collect classic and performance cars and motorcycles. He drove his favourite 308 GTB Ferrari with characteristic panache until he was in his early eighties.

At a classic car event in Essen, a waitress asked him if he was enjoying his visit to Germany. He replied that he had not been for 50 years and was pleased to see "a lot of building work had gone on" since he was last there.

His affable nature, shrewd good sense, business probity and humorous gift for storytelling always made him in demand as a chairman, judge and public speaker. For 20 years he was chairman of the NCC benevolent fund.

Lionel Lee-Davey, who died on February 16, married first, in 1948 (dissolved 1979), Betty Thomson, with whom he had two sons. He married secondly, in 1979, Anne Wibberley, with whom he had a son and daughter .
Click to expand...

Log in or Sign up

Lionel Lee-Davey RIP

Kyt Άρης

Share This Page

Log in or Sign up

Lionel Lee-Davey RIP

Thread Tools

Kyt Άρης

Share This Page

Useful Searches