Arthur Spurling Squadron Leader Arthur Rowe Spurling was a Bermudian who served during the First World War as an infantry man and an aviator , becoming an ace credited with six aerial victories , and as a ferry pilot during the Second World War . Rowe Spurling was born into a prominent Bermudian family in Hamilton , in the British colony of Bermuda , on 19 May 1896 . First World War . When the UK declared war on the Central Powers in August 1914 , the part - time volunteer army units in Bermuda , the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps ( BVRC ) and the Bermuda Militia Artillery ( BMA ) , were mobilised . Although required to fulfil their roles as parts of the Bermuda Garrison , both units immediately proposed sending drafts to the Western Front . The BVRC quickly formed a detachment in December 1914 , which was to train in Bermuda over the winter before being dispatched across the Atlantic . This contingent was composed of volunteers who were already serving , as well as those who enlisted specifically for the Front . Rowe volunteered for the contingent in February 1915 . The Contingent trained at Warwick Camp through the winter and Spring . It consisted of Captain Richard Tucker and eighty - eight other ranks . The Contingent left Bermuda for England on 7 May 1915 , travelling to Canada , then crossing the Atlantic in company with a much larger Canadian draft . It had been hoped that the Contingent could be attached to the Second Battalion of The Lincolnshire Regiment ( 2 Lincolns ) , which had been on Garrison in Bermuda when the War began . When the Contingent arrived at the Lincolns depot in Grimsby , the 2nd Battalion was already in France and it was attached to 1 Lincolns , instead . Captain Tucker carried written instructions from the War Office that ensured that they remained together as a unit , under their own badge . Despite this , the riflemen were given regimental numbers by the Lincolns , Spurling ' s being 3 / 17150 ( his old BVRC number was 989 ) . The contingent arrived in France on 23 June , the first colonial volunteer unit to reach the Front , as an extra company attached to 1 Lincolns , and remained as such til the following summer , by when its strength had been too reduced by casualties to compose a full company , having lost 50 % of its remaining strength at Gueudecourt on 25 September 1916 . The survivors were merged on 17 October 1916 , with the thirty - three men of a Second Contingent of the BVRC , newly arrived from Bermuda , and all were retrained as Lewis gunners . Rifleman Spurling was twice wounded in 1916 : in the hand on 3 July , and in the foot on 13 July ( when he reported he was also " buried for a few hours " ) . In July 1917 , he received a commission , one of sixteen BVRC enlisted men who would become officers while serving in France . Newly commissioned officers were not obliged to return to their original units , but could choose to join any of the regiments or corps of the British Army . Spurling was one of two who chose to join the Royal Flying Corps ( RFC ) , the air arm of the British Army ( the other was Henry Joseph Watlington ) , although more than a dozen other Bermudians would reach the RFC by different routes ( including another BVRC rifleman , later Major Cecil Montgomery - Moore , who detached from the Corps in Bermuda , and who also earned the DFC in France ) , and 2 / Lt . Lennock de Graaf Godet , who had left his studies at Oxford University with the declaration of war . Lieutenant Spurling trained as a pilot , and was posted to 49 Squadron in July 1918 , flying the DeHavilland DH9 , a light bomber with two crew members ( a pilot and an observer , who doubled as a defensive gunner ) . By then , the Royal Flying Corps no longer existed , it having been merged with the Royal Naval Air Service on 1 April 1918 to create the independent Royal Air Force ( RAF ) , to which service Spurling now belonged . On 23 August 1918 , Spurling was flying on a bombing mission when he became separated from his formation . Thinking he was over the British lines , he prepared to land on a German airfield near Lens which he mistook for his own , but was attacked by a German Fokker D . VII fighter . He then saw a formation of thirty more Fokkers . Despite the disadvantages of his flying a bomber and being vastly outnumbered , Spurling launched an attack , shooting down three of the German aircraft , while Sgt . Bell , his observer and tail gunner , accounted for two more . Sharing Bell ' s " kills " , these five victories immediately made Spurling an " ace " . It was for this action that Spurling was awarded the DFC and Sgt Bell was awarded the DFM . Two days later Spurling shot down another D . VII over Mont Notre Dame . Second World War . After the First World War , Rowe returned to civil life in Bermuda . During the Second World War , he returned to the RAF , reaching the rank of Squadron Leader . He served in RAF Transport Command , which was , among other things , responsible for trans - Atlantic delivery of cargo and personnel . This was one of two RAF commands operating in Bermuda ( from RAF Darrell ' s Island , and Kindley Field ) , which had been an important staging point since the start of trans - Atlantic aviation . During this war , Spurling was credited with identifying a Nazi spy in Canada . Post - War . After the Second World War , Spurling returned again to civilian life . He married in 1948 to Ilys Darrell , and operated a taxi fleet and the " Rowe Spurling Paint Company Ltd " , which still exists . Rowe and Ilys moved to Guernsey in the 1970s . They planned to return to Bermuda , but he developed Alzheimer ' s disease , and died in England in 1984 . His body was returned to Bermuda for burial .