THE jovial personality of Ken Davison (as he was before becoming the 3rd Lord Broughshane late in life) was a fixture at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, for many years. He was the genial supervisor at events held for the Friends of Covent Garden and hosted open rehearsals and the Christmas parties with a very personal flair. In fact Davison had initiated many of these schemes having been asked by the ROH’s general administrator, Sir David Webster, in 1962, to take on the post of founding organisational secretary of the Friends of Covent Garden.

This was after a wartime career of great distinction, in which he had commanded a Mosquito squadron on bomber escort and electronic warfare operations, and been awarded the DSO and DFC. As a pilot working in concert with scientific experts he also took part in the testing of a good deal of countermeasures equipment over enemy territory, in the nightly struggle to stay on top of the Third Reich’s fighter defences and evolve tactics to protect the RAF’s bomber streams.

William Kensington Davison was born in 1914, the younger son of the 1st Lord Broughshane. He was christened Kensington, as his father had been Mayor and MP for the borough — though to his friends he was always Ken.

Davison was educated at Shrewsbury School, from where he went to read law at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he also joined the University Air Squadron. He trained as a barrister and, just before war broke out in 1939, he was called to the Bar and practised at the Inner Temple.

He was mobilised in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and became a pilot in Bomber Command. As such he flew Mosquitoes in a variety of roles, one of the most important of which was making the RAF’s night bombing more effective by jamming German ground and airborne radars. This was done both electronically, and by the simpler expedient of dropping “window” — strips of tin foil that caused “clutter” on enemy radar screens and prevented both anti-aircraft guns and fighters from “seeing” the raiders. For some of the time, in trials of new devices on operations, Davison had a most distinguished observer flying with him. This was Derek Jackson, a friend of Churchill’s scientific adviser, Lord Cherwell.

Jackson had been a lecturer in spectroscopy at Oxford before the war (and after it went as a research professor to Paris). He was at the cutting edge of developments in both airborne interception and jamming radars, and Davison’s association with him taught him a great deal about using the RAF’s electronic equipment more effectively.

It was a cat-and-mouse game, with instructions often broadcast in German ordering Luftwaffe nightfighters to return to base just as the British bomber streams were nearing the target area.

In January 1945 Davison was given command of the famous 85 (Mosquito) Squadron, which had been led by Group Captain John “Cats-Eyes” Cunningham in 1943-44. Now attached to 100 Group, Bomber Command, its task was to take on the German nightfighters, both by confusing their radars and by making surprise attacks on them as they took off and landed at their bases, as well as homing in on them as they tried to intercept the bombers over the target.

By the end of the war 85 Squadron had amassed the remarkable total of 278 enemy aircraft destroyed. In 1945 Davison, who ended the war in the rank of wing commander, was awarded the DSO to add to the DFC he had won in 1942.

At the end of the war he was one of a small group of officers who were sent to Germany to interview Luftwaffe pilots, ground controllers and scientists. The German he had learnt in the country while on holiday from school in the 1930s stood him in good stead. Requiring no interpreter when talking to German pilots he was able to glean much valuable information that might have been lost in translation.

Demobilised in 1946, Davison decided not to return to the law. He spent some years in the oil industry and in commercial aviation, at one time working for Freddie Laker.

His appointment in 1962 to manage the Friends of Covent Garden was an inspired one. Davison’s vitality, knowledge of both opera and ballet and sheer love of the Royal Opera House helped to create just the right connection between artists, management and public.

Years before it was essential for such publicly funded bodies to be open and accessible Davison pioneered such schemes as the magazine (About the House), open dress rehearsals for Friends and numerous talks and recitals. He formed a coterie of opera and ballet lovers who were enthusiastic and loyal.

Initially the Friends was conceived as a supporters club, but that was to change dramatically. The first meeting organised by Davison was a discussion on the up-coming new production of La forza del destino delivered by the musicologist Else Mayer-Lismann. She became a regular speaker and created a standard of lectures that has remained high. About the House, similarly, maintained the traditions created by Davison and is one of the best informed and instructive of in-house magazines.

Davison expanded the Friends into an organisation that helped the often hard-pressed finances of the house. It now sponsors productions, funds revivals, provides scholarships for students and supports the increasing educational work. In the 1970s Davison inaugurated an American Friends of Covent Garden.

Davison was always keen to encourage young dancers and singers. He supported the choreographic group run by his friend, the Royal Ballet dancer Leslie Edwards, and arranged for small-scale works to be performed on Sunday evenings.

Memorably, Davison was the originator of the now legendary Friends’ Christmas party, some of whose party pieces are collector’s items. They included Margot Fonteyn dancing Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the newsreader Richard Baker singing Little Miss Bouncer and a notable pas-de-deux for Diana, Princess of Wales, and Wayne Sleep. All were cajoled to appear thanks to Davison’s charm, wit and enthusiastic pleas. “Ken was a great fixer and few ever turned down an invitation. He persuaded with a smile,” recalled Keith Grant, who ran the Royal Opera in the 1960s.

Davison succeeded to the title as the 3rd Lord Broughshane on the death, in 1995, of his elder brother Patrick, whose son had predeceased him. He was unmarried.

Lord Broughshane, DSO, DFC, wartime Mosquito pilot and founder and administrator of the Friends of Covent Garden, was born on November 25, 1914. He died on March 24, 2006, aged 91.