ABSTRACT
Edward Aitken-Davies belonged to the generation who served in both the First and Second World Wars. Born in Plymouth in 1899, he was brought up by his mother, his journalist father having deserted the family and moved to Canada in 1905. He was an accomplished sportsman, playing hockey for Cornwall and briefly cricket for Devon. After military service with the Devonshire Regiment from September 1939, during which he was posted to Gibraltar, gaining useful administrative experience, he was among the first group of army officers to work on educational reconstruction in the British Zone of Occupation in Germany. During his time in Hanover, he developed an academic interest in psychology which led to the completion in 1949 of a thesis for the doctorate in philosophy of Gottingen University.
