Remembering The Victims Of Zeppelins
Rosemary Collins finds out about historian Ian Castle’s project to name all of those killed in air raids in the First World War
While we most associate air raids with the Second World War, an estimated 557 people were killed in Zeppelin bombings in Britain during the First World War. As historian Ian Castle explains, he recently set out to uncover the names of all of the victims.
Why Did You Decide To Start The Project?
Between 2008 and 2010 I had two books published about the German air raids on London in the First World War. One looked at those by German airships – Zeppelins – and the other detailed the raids by bomber aeroplanes. As the centenary of the First World War approached, I decided to create a website detailing all 103 air raids across the whole of Britain ( iancastlezeppelin.co.uk). Once the website was up and running, the question people asked most frequently was: “Where can I find a casualty list of those killed in the air raids?” The simple answer was that there wasn’t one – the Government did not record the names of the victims on a central register. When I started work on my recent book Zeppelin Onslaught, I decided to try to bring as many of these names as possible out of the shadows.
How Did You Carry Out Your Research?
Local newspapers were an excellent source until the end of May 1915 – it all changed on 1 June 1915 after the first Zeppelin raid on London. Suddenly the Government began to take things more seriously, and limited the information that was made public in order to prevent useful intelligence reaching the Germans. Reporting on the effects of the raids continued, but place names were forbidden. However, very detailed secret reports were provided for senior military and government officials, and these are now available at The National Archives ( discovery.nationalarchives. gov.uk); compelling accounts materialise when you marry these with newspaper reports.
Newspapers could report on inquests too but only the personal details of the victims were allowed, not where they were killed; sometimes only ages and occupations were given. But many forgotten victims have emerged following careful detective work using the General Register Office indexes and newspaper
articles.
How Can Our Readers View The List You’ve Compiled?
By the time that I completed Zeppelin Onslaught, I had the names of 193 of the 207 victims from 1915. The missing 14 are all from raids on London: eight from the night of 8/9 September, five from Central London on 13 October, and one man at Woolwich Arsenal the same night. The list of names now appears as an appendix in Zeppelin Onslaught, alongside the towns where the victims died. In many cases I have also been able to describe the circumstances of the individual deaths in the book.
‘The Government did not record victims on a central register’