Elwyn Roy King was born on the 13th of May 1894 in Bathurst , NSW. Before the outbreak of hostilities, King was managing a motoring business at Forbes in the NSW central plains. King originally volunteered to the Lighthorse, enlisting as Roy King but soon transferred to the AFC and was posted to 4 Squadron AFC in mid March of 1918. King was to be good friends with the Australian ace, Cobby and known by the nickname "Bo" or "Bow", Cobby described Kings arrival at 4 Squadron as;

"Roy King, who was destined to become one of the outstanding pilot's in the unit, had joined "A" Flight a couple of days previously, and although from his large stature he had some difficulty in fitting into a Camel, and found trouble landing them because of this, he nevertheless started right off by taking his place in the flight."(1)

Major McClaughry, the CO of 4 Squadron would watch with dismay in King's early period with the squadron, Cobby relates;

"[Major McClaughry] used to stand on the tarmac and curse every time "Bo" (as he was known) tried to make a proper landing with his tail down. Bo was well over six feet tall and broad as well, and the trouble was that he did not have enough room to pull back the stick back and get his tail down properly when at gliding speeds. In the air he was as good as gold, as far less movement was required to handle the controls, owing to the higher airspeed and the extra pressure on the flying surfaces. Anyhow for a time it was a toss up whether he would stay or not. Tab [Lieutenant E.F. Pflaum] had known him during his training and had told me he was as good value, so I took upon myself to ask that he be allotted to my flight and to become one of us."

King was very quickly involved in the aerial combat against the Germans. Cobby describes one of Kings first combats on April 10th as; "An Albatros Scout came out of the clouds and proceeded to fly alongside us. I had not noticed it's arrival as it had most likely just emerged from the cloud, and I was on the point of my going down through the cloud bank when Bo King edged up alongside me and with many gestures pointed it out. This was one of King's first trips, and I gave him the thumb sign to get after the Albatros and pulled up after him. The Hun moved into the cloud and King went over the top to catch him as he came out on the other side, but I went round the cloud to the right and met the other chap almost head on. There was just enough time to press both triggers and to dive under him to get out of the way. He went down into the clouds in flames, but I had hit the pilot, and he almost jumped backwards out of the cockpit when I fired."

King didn't register a victory until May 20th, after two months at the front learning the skills of a scout pilot. Cobby describes the encounter as; "I pointed it [Pfalz Scout] out to Bo King, and indicated that he should have a go at it, while we sat over him. He nodded his head and went down to investigate, and apparently found by it's markings, that it was another Pfalz from the same squadron. Then he and Bo staged a pretty little show while we sat in the gallery. It was obvious from the start that Bo had his opponents measure, and it was only a matter of a few minutes before this particular machine went into a spin. We all saw it crash between Neuve Eglise and Kemmel." King was credited with an OOC for this particular combat.

King and Cobby not only had a strong relationship on the ground but were an effective team in the air as well. The pair would often fly off together in early morning and late evening patrols searching for enemy aircraft. Through June of 1918, King and Cobby were continually flying patrols and scrambles in answer to wireless calls from the front lines which noted enemy activity. In one of these patrols, King and Cobby found several LVG's and a pair of Halberstadt's trying to slip over the Messines Ridge. King destroyed an LVG while Cobby attacked and destroyed one of the Halberstadt's. The partnership and friendship between King and Cobby was to prove positive for 4 Squadron and for A Flight. The pair were to become the leading aces of the Squadron and two of the most aggressive squadron members and leaders. Cobby was to have the record of never losing a flight member to enemy action while he was leading the flight and King was to be the commander of A Flight during the final month of the war when the squadron broke their victory tallies for all previous months while flying the new and more powerful Sopwith Snipe.

On the 10th of August, King attacked a balloon over Estaires and fired into it until the balloon began to smoke and then caught fire. Cobby was above watching over King when seven Albatros Scouts dived on Cobby from above, with Cobby looping and manouvering from the Albatros, King was beset upon by another group of Albatros Scouts which dived on him from behind a group of clouds. The pair were saved any further need to throw aerobatics when a group of SE5's came and chased the Albatros Scouts away from the two Camels. Less than a mile further on, King saw an SE5 attacking an LVG and when King approached, the SE5 climbed in a zoom and beat it for the allied lines, King presumed the SE5 mistook his Camel for an enemy scout. The LVG immediately started pulling tight circles, which Cobby describes the defensive tactic as, "It is difficult to hit a machine when it starts doing this." King came in under the LVG's nose and fired a long burst into it head on, narrowly missing colliding with the German two seater. The LVG went into a steep dive and then pulled out attempting to land. the LVG crashed, with the pilot seemingly wounded. That afternoon the King of England in company with General Birdwood visited the squadron. The King George V took particular interest in the fight that Cobby and King had been in and claimed for only a few hours before the King George's visit. There is a famous photograph of the meeting.

The Official Records and Statistics contains the commendation of Kings leadership and flying abilities by the Squadrons Commanding Officer, Major W.A. McClaughry;

"Report re escort of 6 DH9a of 103 Sqn bombing Armentieres when 3 EA[Enemy Aircraft] were driven down completely out of control by Pilots of 4th Sqn AFC. The patrol of 6 Camels sent from this squadron picked upthe DH9s over Foret Nieppe at 12000 feet. The escort followed bombers over to Armentiers flying slightly below and behind them. Whenjust North of Armentieres 10 Fokker biplanes were shot down completely out of control by Lieutenants R. King, Lieutenant E. Taplin, DFC , Lieutenant Norman C. Trescowthick. I desire to bring to your special attention the work of Lieutenant R. King who was leading the escort and to whose skilful and cool leadership the whole success of the operations was due. He kept in close touch with his Flight the whole time, and by keeping good formation enabled the whole of the bombers and escort to return without a single loss, though two Camels were rather badly damaged by machine gun fire. Four EA have previously been destroyed by Lieutenant R. King, who has at all times distinguished himself by his cool, skilful and daring leadership."

During the attack on the German aerodrome at Lille, the whole of 80 Wing led by Cobby attacked and heavily damaged the aerodrome. During the attack, King and Cobby both spotted a line up of Fokkers on the field at the same place and both after dropping their bombs on the hangars came round quickly at grass level to fire into the Fokkers. King and Cobby came close to touching and King tried to push Cobby out of position so he would be the first to fire into them. Cobby wouldn't give way and King tucked in behind him, the pair firing into the Fokkers until they caught fire. Cobby relates, "He [King] tried to jockey me out of position, but I wouldn't give way so he dropped in closer still and a little behind, and we sprayed the Fokkers until they caught fire."

Lieutenant Charles H. Copp of 2 Sqn AFC, told later of the Wing raid on Harbourdin in which he noticed the Sopwith Camel of Roy King. Copp relates; " I happened to be going low over the little village of Haubourdin and there to my surprise I saw one of our Camels flying along the main road, straight through the middle of the village, about level with the windows of the houses. I recognised this machine as the one flown by Captain Roy King of No.4 Squadron."

Copp continued, "After we arrived back at Reclingham and found that all the machines had returned and no lives had been lost. The pilots were all talking over the details of the raid, and I turned to 'Bo' King and asked, "What on earth were you doing flying down that street waving your hand?" He answered, "I thought the girls in that village must have had a heck of a time with all that bombing, and must have been terribly scared, so I thought I'd try to cheer them up a bit." Which was typical of 'Bo' King. "

With Cobby leaving the squadron for duty with Home Establishment 1 Wing AFC as a Fighting Instructor, King was promoted to Captain and Flight Commander in September 1918, with his victory tally standing at 18. The Official Records and Statistics remarks on Kings work with the squadron;

"For consistently excellent work during the preceding four months [June - September] Lieutenant R. King was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. During that period Lieutenant King had destroyed fifteen enemy machines and balloons. His efforts were furthur rewarded at the end of the month when he was given command of A Flight and promoted Captain."

Like Cobby and the New Zealander Herbert Watson, King had made a point of attacking enemy balloons, he was to destroy four. The final balloon King destroyed was on the 1st of September 1918. Along with Taplin they destroyed two balloons on the Aubers Ridge behind Fromelles. King destroying his balloon by dropping the bombs his Sopwith Camel was carrying on top of the balloon.

The Squadron in early October received the Sopwith Snipe as their new fighting Scout. King took a liking to the type immediately, Cobby wrote, "We received our first batch of the new Sopwith Snipes soon after this, but I did not have enough practice on them to be able to handle them properly. "Bo" King liked them from the start, as his rather large frame was given plenty of room in which to move." King was to be the allies leading exponent on the Sopwith Snipe, bagging 7 Enemy Aircraft in the space of a month, with the Squadron claiming a total of 35 victories in the month with the type.

On the 30th of October King was to claim three aircraft in a combat. As part of the Wing tactics the Royal Air Force was adopting with the close union of the squadrons in the same Wing being used to achive objectives and saturate targets, the Snipes of 4 Sqn were in company with the DH9a's of 103 Sqn RAF. King shot a Fokker away from a DH9 he was escorting, King was set upon by four more Fokkers. King wrote , " [I] zoomed up through their formation and turned across infront of the highest enemy machine, which I had not previously seen. This machine fell over on it's back avoiding collision, and, so doing, fell on a second Fokker which was zooming up at me below him. These two machines fell to pieces and crashed."

King was the flight commander of one of the last big aerial combats of the war when Jasta 2 " Boelcke" of JGIII and led by the German ace Karl Bolle, met 4 AFC in an aerial engagement on the 4th of November. In this fight Captain T.C.R. Baker, Lieutenant A.J. Palliser and Lieutenant Symons were lost. In the battle King fired 150 rounds on a Fokker after diving on it, from which it fell through the fight out of control, he then fired four bursts at another Fokker which was attacking a Snipe. The Fokker ended up in flames from Kings marksmanship.

E. Roy King achieved 26 aerial combat victories in his career with the AFC, ranking him as the fourth highest scoring Australian pilot of the war. King also was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and the Distinguished Flying Cross. King was the leading allied scorer with the Sopwith Snipe having achieved 7 of his victories with the type. After the war, King worked for the Larking Aviation Group in Civil Aviation before starting a company in association with Mr T.T. Shipman named Shipman, King and Co which manufactured petrol pumps.

In World War II he came out of civilian life and took command of the RAAF station at Point Cook, unfortunately he was to contract ill there and pass away on the 28th of November 1941. The pallbearers at his funeral at Fawkner Crematorium in Melbourne were all high ranking members of the Royal Australian Air Force and many of the WWI aces and pilots who served with King. They included, Air Vice Marshal H.N. Wrigley, Air Commodore R.J. Brownell, Group Captain J.H. Sumner, Group Captain A.L. Walters and Group Captain M.O. Walters amongst others as a sign of the deep respect he was held in.