This collection consists of six leather bound diaries that contain a record of Henry Fairfax Ayres' life from 1928 to 1944. Three volumes (1928-1938) contain detailed information about his activities as a pilot, including a record of flights completed, record of hunting trips, and comments about life in New York City, New York.
The subsequent three volumes (1943-1944) contain a record of his World War II service supervising convoys. Included are detailed diary entries for this period, descriptions of London, England life during the World War II, and records of specific convoys.
Henry Fairfax Ayres was born on April 23, 1886 in Oak Hill, Loudoun County, Virginia to Charles Greenleaf Ayres and Elizabeth Fairfax. He attended VMI as a member of the Class of 1906 and subsequently graduated from the United States Military Academy, Class of 1908. He served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the field artillery of the American Expeditionary Forces in France during World War I.
After the War Ayres worked as an investment banker in New York City, New York trading on Wall Street during the boom years of the 1920s, and pursued his avocation as a pilot. In 1937 he moved to Vermont where he was the legal committee chairman of the Vermont Sugar Makers Association, and was an inventor, environmentalist, and civic leader.
Ayres reentered military service as a Colonel in the Air Force following the outbreak of World War II, overseeing the convoying of pilots and flight crews to the Pacific and European theaters of operation. He served at Milne Bay, New Guinea in 1944 and in Rome and Anzio, Italy in 1945. In 1945 he was injured in a Patrol, Torpedo (PT) boat reconnaissance raid in the Dover Strait. Ayres died in Vermont on January 9, 1979 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia.
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Henry Fairfax Ayres diaries, 1928-1944. MS 0528. VMI Archives, Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia.
This one-volume diary dates from Henry Fairfax Ayres's military service overseeing convoys. It includes information about his first North Atlantic convoy and diary entries discussing activities and wartime life in London, England.