Taber, Arthur Richmond

Born July 22, 1893, in Far Rockaway, Long Island, New York. Son of Sydney Richmond and Julia Biddle Taber. Home, Princeton, New Jersey. Educated Lake Forest, Illinois, schools; Cloyne House School, Newport, Rhode Island; Groton School, Massachusetts; Sanford School, Redding Ridge, Connecticut; Lake Placid School, New York, and Princeton University, Class of 1917. Joined American Field Service, October 18, 1915; attached Section Four until February 7, 1916. Returned to America. Plattsburg Camp, 1916. Princeton Aviation School, April to June, 1917. Enlisted U. S. Aviation as cadet, June 29; trained Princeton. To England, September, 1917; trained in Oxford, Stamford, and Waddington. To France, February, 1918; trained Tours and Issoudun. Commissioned First Lieutenant, Aviation Section, Signal Reserve Corps, April 4, 1918. Transfer pilot, Orly. Flying missions to England, August and November, 1918. Killed in aeroplane accident, February 11, 1919, at Orly. Buried American Military Cemetery, Suresnes, Seine.

"ARCHIE" TABER from childhood was endowed with an unusually attractive personality and a splendid physique. "I can still see him so plainly as a wonderfully handsome child with superabundant vitality. Never do I recall anyone so thoroughly alive," writes an old friend. And as this fine body was building itself up, there was developing at the same time, due in no small degree to the wise, and ever-watchful care of his parents, a character and intelligence of the finest calibre.

As early as October, 1915, and while still a student at Princeton, he felt the call of the work which Americans were doing in France, and enlisted in the American Field Service. He was one of the original members of Section Four which left Paris in November, and he remained at the front, in Lorraine and in the region of Toul with the Section for three months, returning to America in February to complete his course at Princeton. A year later, as his father writes, "He had the satisfaction of organizing and sending forward three Field Service units, each composed of twenty-five Princeton students. The impetus given by his efforts resulted later in the formation and despatch, under the leadership of his successors, of two more units."

By this time, however, his own interest was centered in aviation and on March 8, 1917, he applied for a commission in the Aviation Section, Signal Reserve Corps. He did not enter the army as a flying cadet until June 29th, but in the meantime he flew almost daily during April, May, and June, 1917, in the Princeton Aviation School, which experience stood him in excellent stead later on. Once in the army, he first completed the course at the United States Military School of Aeronautics at Princeton, and in September, 1917, sailed for England with a contingent of cadets for further training at the various English Aviation Schools of Oxford, Stamford, and Waddington. In February, 1918, he was sent to France, and after perfecting himself at Tours and Issoudun, was commissioned First Lieutenant on April 14, 1918. On July 8th he was assigned to duty as transfer pilot in which position, during the remainder of the war, he had the privilege of performing arduous and essential service in delivering new planes, by air, from the headquarters at Orly, to training-camps and points at the front. He twice crossed the channel to England on special missions and once flew as far as Ireland. On February 11, 1919, while in discharge of his duty of testing planes at Orly, he was killed by the fall of his plane due to the breaking of a control.

Such is the service which Taber gave to the cause, beginning a year and a half before his country entered the war and continuing after the armistice and until his death. Yet splendid as this record is, "Archie" Taber will be remembered as much for the manner of man he was as for his achievements or anything which he could have done.

The final measure of a man's worth lies in the judgment of his friends, associates, and comrades, and the following brief extracts from letters written at the time of his death show what this judgment is: "Arthur Taber was the best known, best beloved, and most respected man on this post." "He was liked and admired everywhere; was one of the cleanest, straightest men I have ever known. He was to me,---as to others who knew him--- ever cheerful, unassuming, and considerate; one of the best, most earnest and enthusiastic pilots." "There was something indescribable about Archie that, without his saying anything, made you want him to think well of you." Briefest and perhaps finest of all is this brief tribute from a fellow aviator: "He was white way through."

• Tribute from Memorial Volume of the American Field Service, 1921