Leefe Robinson

William Leefe Robinson VC (14 July 1895 – 31 December 1918) was the first British pilot to shoot down a German airship over Britain during the First World War. For this he was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. He was the first person to be awarded the VC for action in the UK.

Early life
Robinson was born in Coorg, India on 14 July 1895, the youngest son of Horace Robinson and Elizabeth Leefe. Raised on his parents' coffee estate, Kaima Betta Estate, at Pollibetta, in Coorg, he attended Bishop Cotton Boys' School, Bangalore, and the Dragon School, Oxford, before following his elder brother Harold to St. Bees School, Cumberland in September, 1909. While there he succeeded his brother as Head of Eaglesfield House in 1913, played in the Rugby 1st XV and became a sergeant in the school Officer Training Corps.

In August, 1914 he entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst and was gazetted into the Worcestershire Regiment in December. In March, 1915 he went to France as an observer with the Royal Flying Corps, to which he had transferred. After having been wounded over Lille he underwent pilot training in Britain, before being attached to No. 39 (Home Defence) Squadron, a night-flying squadron at Sutton's Farm airfield near Hornchurch in Essex.

Action


On the night of 2/3 September 1916 over Cuffley, Hertfordshire, Lieutenant Robinson, flying a converted B.E.2c night fighter, sighted a German airship – one of 16 which had left bases in Germany for a mass raid over England. The airship was the wooden-framed Schütte-Lanz SL 11, although at the time and for many years after, it was misidentified as Zeppelin L 21. Robinson made an attack at an altitude of 11500 ft approaching from below and closing to within 500 ft raking the airship with machine-gun fire. As he was preparing for another attack, the airship burst into flames and crashed in a field behind the Plough Inn at Cuffley, killing Commander Wilhelm Schramm and his 15-man crew.

This action was witnessed by thousands of Londoners who, as they saw the airship descend in flames, cheered and sang the national anthem, one even played the bagpipes. The propaganda value of this success was enormous to the British Government, as it indicated that the German airship threat could be countered. When Robinson was awarded the VC by the King at Windsor Castle, huge crowds of admirers and onlookers were in attendance. Robinson was also awarded £3,500 in prize money and a silver cup donated by the people of Hornchurch.

In a memo to his Commanding Officer, Leefe Robinson wrote:

The propellor from the plane Leefe Robinson was flying when he shot down the airship is on public display in the Armoury of Culzean Castle in Ayrshire. It was given to the Marquess of Ailsa in thanks for letting his land at Turnberry be used for an RFC flying school.

Capture


In April 1917, Robinson was posted to France as a Flight Commander with No. 48 Squadron, flying the then new Bristol F.2 Fighter. On the first patrol over the lines, Robinson's formation of six aircraft encountered the Albatros D.III fighters of Jasta 11, led by Manfred von Richthofen, and four were shot down. Robinson, shot down by Vizefeldwebel Sebastian Festner, was wounded and captured. He was not well treated by the Germans. He made several attempts to escape but all failed, his health was badly affected during his time as a prisoner. He was imprisoned at Zorndorf and Holzminden, being kept in solitary confinement at the latter camp for his escape attempts.

Death
Robinson died on 31 December 1918 at the Stanmore home of his sister, the Baroness Heyking, from the effects of the Spanish flu pandemic to which his imprisonment had left him particularly susceptible. He was buried at All Saints' Churchyard Extension in Harrow Weald. A memorial to him was later erected near the spot where the airship crashed. This was renovated in 1986 and again in 2009, the latter occasion being to correct movement of the obelisk and surrounding footpath caused by subsidence.

An additional monument was erected in East Ridgeway, unveiled on 9 June 1921, and by a road named after him (Robinson Close) in Hornchurch, Essex on the site of the former Suttons Farm airfield. A short segment of a wartime newsreel survives although the location and date of the recorded event being unknown.

He was commemorated by the name of the local Miller & Carter steakhouse just south of the cemetery, the Leefe Robinson VC on the Uxbridge Road, Harrow Weald.

In April 2010, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Great Northern Route extension that connects Grange Park to Cuffley, the First Capital Connect rail company named a Class 313 train Captain William Leefe Robinson VC.