Richard Jeffries Dawes was born on 23 October 1897 in Lachine, Quebec, Canada. He joined the military for World War I, and ended up a Sopwith Camel

Sopwith Camel

The Sopwith Camel was a British First World War single-seat biplane fighter introduced on the Western Front in 1917. Manufactured by Sopwith Aviation Company, it had a short-coupled fuselage, heavy, powerful rotary engine, and concentrated fire from twin synchronized machine guns. Though difficult...

 pilot in the Royal Flying Corps

Royal Flying Corps

The Royal Flying Corps was the over-land air arm of the British military during most of the First World War. During the early part of the war, the RFC's responsibilities were centred on support of the British Army, via artillery co-operation and photographic reconnaissance...

.

World War I

By late 1917, Dawes was posted to 45 Squadron on the Western Front

Western Front (World War I)

Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...

 as a pilot. He scored his first aerial victory on the Western Front before 45 Squadron was transferred to Italy. He became an ace with the squadron. Then, at about the time the Royal Flying Corps was being consolidated into the Royal Air Force, Dawes was transferred for a short spell to 28 Squadron, which was also in Italy. He scored a victory with them before transferring back to 45 Squadron. He wrapped up his tally with a final three wins with the unit in June 1918. His courage earned him a Distinguished Flying Cross, which was gazetted on 21 September 1918:

List of aerial victories

See also Aerial victory standards of World War I

Aerial victory standards of World War I

During World War I, the national air services involved developed their own methods of assessing and assigning credit for aerial victories.The victory scores of the pilots represented at List of World War I flying aces often cannot be definitive, but are based on itemized lists that are the best...

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No.	Date/time	Aircraft	Foe	Result	Location	Notes
1	20 October 1917 @ 2040 hours	Sopwith Camel Sopwith Camel The Sopwith Camel was a British First World War single-seat biplane fighter introduced on the Western Front in 1917. Manufactured by Sopwith Aviation Company, it had a short-coupled fuselage, heavy, powerful rotary engine, and concentrated fire from twin synchronized machine guns. Though difficult...	Albatros D.III Albatros D.III The Albatros D.III was a biplane fighter aircraft used by the Imperial German Army Air Service and the Austro-Hungarian Air Service during World War I. The D.III was flown by many top German aces, including Manfred von Richthofen, Ernst Udet, Erich Löwenhardt, Kurt Wolff, and Karl Emil Schäfer...	Driven down out of control	Kastelhoek
2	31 December 1917 @ 0945 hours	Sopwith Camel serial number B6412	Albatros D.III	Driven down out of control	Pieve de Soligo
3	14 January 1918 @ 1500 hours	Sopwith Camel s/n B6412	Albatros D.III	Destroyed	Borgo
4	27 January 1918 @ 1340 hours	Sopwith Camel s/n B6412	DFW DFW DFW may refer to:*Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport*Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, a metropolitan area in north Texas*Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources*Division of Fisheries and Wildlife...  reconnaissance plane	Driven down out of control	Conegliano Conegliano Conegliano is a town and comune of the Veneto region, Italy, in the province of Treviso, about north by rail from the town of Treviso. The population of the city is of around 36,000 people. The remains of a castle that was built in the 10th century remain on a nearby hill...
5	10 March 1918 @ 1130 hours	Sopwith Camel s/n B6412	DFW reconnaissance plane	Destroyed	Southeast of Salgarada	Victory shared with Sidney Cottle Sidney Cottle Group Captain Sidney Joseph "Jack" Cottle MBEs military career began during World War I. He became a flying ace in the latter years of the war, credited with thirteen aerial victories...
6	3 May 1918 @ 0915 hours	Sopwith Camel s/n B7359	Aviatik Aviatik Automobil und Aviatik AG was a German aircraft manufacturer during World War I. The company was established at Mülhausen in 1910 and soon became one of the country's leading producers of aircraft, relocating to Freiburg in 1914 and establishing a subsidiary in Vienna as Österreichisch-Ungarische...  reconnaissance plane	Destroyed	Mt. Santo	Only victory scored while with 28 Squadron
7	3 June 1918 @ 0905 hours	Sopwith Camel s/n B6412	Albatros D.V Albatros D.V |-See also:-Bibliography:*Bennett, Leon. Gunning for the Red Baron. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2006. ISBN 1-58544-507-X....	Driven down out of control	Campo
8	7 June 1918 @ 0930 hours	Sopwith Camel s/n B6412	Albatros D.III	Destroyed	Piovena
9	15 June 1918 @ 0745 hours	Sopwith Camel s/n B6412	Aviatik reconnaissance plane	Destroyed	Between Mt. Campo and Poselaro

Post World War I

Richard Jeffries Dawes lived until 22 April 1983, though details of his postwar life are unknown. He died in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.