Following the previous Bulletin we now print the third and final of the tributes to the three OSB winners of the Victoria Cross. By doing this, we do not in any way wish to diminish the contribution and sacrifice made by all those former members of the school who served their country at that time.
LEST WE FORGET Captain William Leefe Robinson VC (14 July 1895 – 31 December 1918) (Eaglesfield 1909-1914)
William Leefe Robinson was born in Coorg, India on 14 July 1895, and raised on his parents' coffee estate. He attended Bishop Cotton Boys' School, Bangalore, and the Dragon School, Oxford, before following his elder brother Harold to St Bees in September 1909. 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.
At the outbreak of war, aged 19, he entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst and was gazetted into the Worcestershire Regiment in December 1914. He subsequently transferred to the newly formed Royal Flying Corps and in March, 1915 went to France as an observer. After having been wounded over Lille he then 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. Lieutenant (later Captain) William Leefe Robinson was the first man to shoot down a German rigid airship over Britain. 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 a wooden-framed Schütte-Lanz SL 11 (a contemporary of the famous Zeppelin). Robinson made an attack at an altitude of 11,500ft (3,500 m) approaching from below and closing to within 500ft (150 m) 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 person 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 Lieutenant 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. His citation read– “For most conspicuous bravery. He attacked an enemy airship under circumstances of great difficulty and danger, and sent it crashing to the ground as a flaming wreck. He had been in the air for more than two hours, and had previously attacked another airship during his flight” In April 1917, the now Captain Robinson was posted to France as a Flight Commander with No. 48 Squadron, flying the new Bristol F.2 Fighter. On the first patrol over the lines, Captain Robinson's formation of six aircraft encountered the Albatros D.III fighters of Jasta 11, led by Manfred von Richthofen, the famous Red Baron. Unfortunately four British aircraft, including that flown by Captain Robinson, were shot down.  Captain Robinson was wounded and captured. He was not well treated by the Germans and imprisoned at Zorndorf and Holzminden, and kept in solitary confinement as punishment for his escape attempts. At the end of the war Captain Robinson was repatriated but his health had deteriorated to such an extent that he succumbed to Spanish Influenza and died on the 31st December 1918 at the age of 23. He was buried at All Saints' Church in Harrow Weald and a memorial to him was later erected near the spot where the airship crashed.
September 1916 From: Lieutenant Leefe Robinson, Sutton's Farm. To: The Officer Commanding No. 39 H. D. Squadron. Sir: I have the honour to make the following report on night patrol made by me on the night of the 2-3 instant. I went up at about 11.08 p.m. on the night of the second with instructions to patrol between Sutton's Farm and Joyce Green. I climbed to 10,000 feet in fifty-three minutes. I counted what I thought were ten sets of flares - there were a few clouds below me, but on the whole it was a beautifully clear night. I saw nothing until 1.10 a.m., when two searchlights picked up a Zeppelin S.E. of Woolwich. The clouds had collected in this quarter and the searchlights had some difficulty in keeping on the airship.                                                                                             By this time I had managed to climb to 12,000 feet and I made in the direction of the Zeppelin - which was being fired on by a few anti-aircraft guns - hoping to cut it off on its way eastward. I very slowly gained on it for about ten minutes. I judged it to be about 800 feet below me and I sacrificed some speed in order to keep the height. It went behind some clouds, avoiding the searchlight, and I lost sight of it. After fifteen minutes of fruitless search I returned to my patrol. I managed to pick up and distinguish my flares again. At about 1.50 a.m. I noticed a red glow in the N.E. of London. Taking it to be an outbreak of fire, I went in that direction. At 2.05 a Zeppelin was picked up by the searchlights over N.N.E. London (as far as I could judge). Remembering my last failure, I sacrificed height (I was at about 12,900 feet) for speed and nosed down in the direction of the Zeppelin. I saw shells bursting and night tracers flying around it. When I drew closer I noticed that the anti-aircraft aim was too high or too low; also a good many shells burst about 800 feet behind-a few tracers went right over. I could hear the bursts when about 3,000 feet from the Zeppelin. I flew about 800 feet below it from bow to stern and distributed one drum among it (alternate New Brock and Pomeroy). It seemed to have no effect; I therefore moved to one side and gave them another drum along the side - also without effect. I then got behind it and by this time I was very close - 500 feet or less below, and concentrated one drum on one part (underneath rear). I was then at a height of 11,500 feet when attacking the Zeppelin. I had hardly finished the drum before I saw the part fired at, glow. In a few seconds the whole rear part was blazing. When the third drum was fired, there were no searchlights on the Zeppelin, and no anti-aircraft was firing. I quickly got out of the way of the falling, blazing Zeppelin and, being very excited, fired off a few red Very lights and dropped a parachute flare. Having little oil or petrol left, I returned to Sutton's Farm, landing at 2.45 a.m. On landing, I found the Zeppelin gunners had shot away the machine-gun wire guard, the rear part of my centre section, and had pierced the main spar several times. I have the honour to be, sir, Your obedient servant, (Signed) W. Leefe Robinson, Lieutenant No. 39 Squadron, R.F.C.

 

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