The Propeller

“This is in the same room as the pistols and is a very unusual item. It’s a large teak propeller mounted on the ceiling. It has an incredible story and came from the aircraft which shot down the first German Zeppelin, just outside London, in September 1916. It comes from a B.E.2C night fighter, which was flown by lieutenant William Leefe Robinson. It was was a horrible thing to fly and he was around 1000 feet higher than he should have been when he attacked the Zeppelin. He emptied his drums of bullets into it and, as he fired his last shots, it suddenly ignited and fell out of the sky. He won the Victoria Cross and later became a captain before being shot down and captured. He caught the Spanish Flu when he returned to Britain and tragically died at just 23 years old.”