The man who shot down a German Zeppelin

A PRIZED MENU CARD FROM A SPECIAL DINNER IN HONOUR OF THE FIRST PILOT TO SHOOT DOWN A GERMAN ZEPPELIN OVER BRITAIN IS GOING UNDER THE HAMMER. TONY HENDERSON REPORTS

AS the first pilot to shoot down a German Zeppelin over Britain, William Leefe Robinson became an instant national hero.

Lieut Robinson downed the airship on the night of September 2/3 in 1916 over Hertfordshire and was awarded the Victoria Cross.

Newcastle was eager to acclaim Lieut Robinson and staged a dinner in his honour at the Mansion House in the city on September 27.

Now the menu card for the event, signed by Lieut Robinson, is to be sold by auctioneers Tennants at Leyburn in North Yorkshire on Wednesday, with an estimate of £60-£100.

At the dinner, Colonel Joseph Cowen, the son of the late MP and Newcastle Chronicle owner Joseph Cowen, presented Lieut Robinson with £2,000.

In a letter to his parents, the pilot wrote: “I went up to Newcastle for a day and was entertained by the Lord Mayor who gave a dinner in my honour.

“They wanted to make the whole thing a grand public function but H.Q. wouldn’t let them, for which I was very thankful.

“I’ve had endless other small presents - some of the nicest are paintings of the burning Zepp. Babies, flowers and hats have been named after me also poems and prose have been dedicated to me. It’s too much!

“I am recognised wherever I go about town now. The police salute me, waiters, hall porters and pages of hotels and restaurants bow and scrape, visitors turn round and stare. Oh it’s too thick!”

Lieut Robinson’s report on the action read: “I went up at about 11.08pm, I saw nothing until 1.10am, when two searchlights picked up a Zeppelin.

“I flew about 800 feet below it from bow to stern and distributed one drum along it. I gave it another drum distributed along its side without apparent effect.

“I then got behind it (by this time I was very close - 500 feet or less below) and concentrated one drum on one part (underneath rear).

“I hardly finished the drum before I saw the part fired at glow. In a few seconds the whole rear part was blazing.

“I quickly got out of the way of the falling, blazing Zeppelin.”

The public reaction was a reflection of the relief of a population which had felt powerless against the new terror of being bombed from the air.

The first Zeppelin raid on the North East was on April 14, 1915 – one of more than 20 airship forays against the region and the second on Britain.