Colleen Morrison

2025-05-14 08:44:26

I wonder if they'll speak about the hugely courageous Royal Flying Corps pilot, William Leaf Robinson. He was the first RFC pilot to shoot down down a German Zeppelin which was fire bombing UK in WW1. Harlow's old labour MP, Stan Newens, confirmed my belief that WLR had a girlfriend in Epping and he flew from North Weald airfield the night he shot down the L32 Schütte-Lanz zeppelin, or air ship, although he wasn't based with that squadron. WLR's plane was like a little balsa wood gnat next to the huge zeppelin, which was about 70' in diameter and 200'? long. When a zeppelin passed low over a house, the sky went dark in broad daylight. WLR was on one of the Night Hawk patrols and the problem with his plane that he had to choose between speed or height: if flew fast, he had to do so at low height and if he flew high, he had little or no speed. If I remember correctly, he had so little power that it took him an hour or longer to reach the height the zeppelin was flying at. WLR flew beneath it, shooting round after round of explosive bullets into the casing. When this airship ignited, WLR was right beneath it, the airship began to fall and he had to move out of its was sharpish. William Leefe Robinson became the most famous man in UK, he was like a WW1 Beatle, where ever he went, crowds formed around him, making him stop his car and the crowd sang God Save The King and For He's a Jolly Good Fellow. He was awarded a bravery medal by the king, but was held up for hours driving to Buckingham Palace because the crowds kept stopping him. The king was so excited to meet him and so determined to give WLR his medal personally that he waited for him. I was given some pictures of WLR destroying the zeppelin by a family member and a newspaper report of WLR being mobbed my crowds. WLR was in his early 20s, but sadly had just a short life, as his plane was shot down in Germany in WW1 and he was imprisoned in a POW camp, which destroyed his health. When he was released to UK, he sadly died in a flu pandemic because his health had been compromised by imprisonment.