Roy was attending school in England when the war broke out. He joined the Royal Flying Corps in July of 1917 and was posted to 56 Squadron on 30 October 1917. Roy crashed his S.E.5a (B567) on the morning of 6 December and was injured. When he recovered, he was sent back to England for remedial training. After some additional flying he was pronounced unfit to fly by the medical staff, a decision which he was able to get reversed, and he returned to France on 19 June, 1918. He was reassigned to 40 Squadron under George McElroy. Between the 6th and 19th of July, the nineteen year old was credited with ten victories in just over 170 hours of flight time. On the morning of 22 July 1918, three days after scoring his final victory, he was killed in action when his plane went down in flames over Carvin during a dogfight with the Fokker D.VIIs of Jasta 29. In September a Distinguished Flying Cross was gazetted for this 19 year-old, the first - and to date the only - Indian Fighter Ace.
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