The R.A. Davidson papers consist of a report, and supporting documentation, which resulted from a reconnaissance mission to survey the Red Sea coast of Egypt, in order to determine whether locations along the coast were being used for arms smuggling from the Arabian Peninsula. In addition to Davidson's report, an additional report he compiled in 1917, describing the conditions for the cultivation of barley in the coastal region of northwest Egypt, is also included with these papers.

The occasion for the reconnaissance mission, and the resulting report compiled by Captain Davidson, was the suspicion that after the end of World War I, hostile elements were smuggling weapons from the Arabian Peninsula to the Red Sea coast of Egypt, where they were then collected and distributed inland. According to orders issued by A.W. Keown-Boyd, Oriental Secretary to the High Commissioner of Egypt, Edmund Allenby, Davidson and his team were to conduct a thorough survey of the Red Sea coastline, from the Gulf of Suez to the border between Sudan and Eritrea, in order to document and assess the conditions and forces needed to intercept such smugglers. Keown-Boyd suggested that a combination of sea planes, camel patrols, and car patrols might be necessary, and that such a reconnaissance mission could establish which of these would be most effective, and how many of such forces would be required.

According to Davidson's diary, included in his report, the group departed Cairo for Suez on 30 June 1919, and then boarded the S.S. Aida, which left on 3 July. The survey of the coastline included ports such as Hurghada, Sharm el-Sheikh, Port Sudan, and Suakin, with party members often disembarking to explore the surrounding areas by car, sometimes driving as far as Qena, on the Nile River, before returning to the coast. The group returned to Suez on 7 August.

Davidson's report concluded that there was no evidence of any arms smuggling to be found at that time, but he recommended that the area be patrolled by camel corps, with light car patrols being used further inland, as a second line of patrol, and that dhow traffic be restricted to specially designated ports. The most extensive portion of the report consists of a detailed description of the ports and anchorages along the coast (pages 48-71), as well as a separate appendix describing roads and the coastline (pages 34-47). In addition, attached lists of dhows that arrived at specific ports between 1917 and 1919 was used by Davidson as a means of recommending measures to be taken to control dhow traffic.

Davidson's report consists of a copy of the orders, his summary, and then appendices covering specific topics of the survey, and a concluding diary for the expedition. One missing segment that he had listed in the table of contents was Appendix A.12, covering water supplies, and consisting of 18 pages of text. In a letter of 15 June 1921 to "Hope" (last name unknown), Davidson mentioned that this section was missing from this copy of the report, as it was requested by the "F.D.A. and Mines Department of Egypt," and as he had the only copy of that text, he left that with them before departing Egypt. The original folder in which the report was bound also contains a folded map of the Red Sea coast of Egypt, which was pasted to the inside rear cover of the folder, and has been kept attached to it.

He notes in that same letter that he made 8 copies of the report for General Headquarters, submitting the original to General Lord Allenby, the High Commissioner for Egypt. In the same letter, he references the "Notes on Barley Growing in the Coastal Belt of Northwest Egypt," leading to the likelihood that both reports, and the related correspondence, were kept in the possession of "Hope" and may have been handed down from her to others over the decades. Loose letters and documents that were filed in the report included correspondence to Davidson summoning him to a meeting at the Savoy Hotel in Cairo to discuss the planned mission, and a precis of the proceedings of that meeting.

In addition to the reports and documents dating from the period of Davidson's service in Egypt, the collection also contains a separate file of documents from 1943, when Davidson was serving as a Quartering Commandant in the Lancashire and Border District of the British Army, and appears to have participated in the process of calling up officers to serve in newly occupied areas, most likely in North Africa.