"For Valour"

I went to Cuffley today, mainly in the hope of togging a flypast at the ceremony commemorating the 100th anniversary of the first Zeppelin to be shot down over London by William Leefe Robinson. He did it when he had been in the air for a long time, was freezing cold and very low on fuel. His fuel pump was broken, necessitating the pumping of fuel by hand.   

I was surprised that The Millennium Gardens is a small area, just off the main road, flanked by shops. I spotted a skinny parking space, that in other circumstances I might have rejected. As I edged in I came face-to-face with the friendly driver of a swish limousine, promising that I wouldn't damage his motor when I got out. We got chatting about cars and planes and he told me that he had brought Sir Freddie Sowrey, 94, to officiate at the ceremony.

While a small and very polite crowd waited for the ceremony to start I talked aircraft with a guy from The Imperial War Museum, Duxford. I had my camera set to capture the BE2c and Spitfire when it was announced that the flypast had been cancelled. I wasn't too disappointed though. Sir Freddie did his stuff and it brought a tear to my eye. He is very smart, has a beautiful speaking voice, a wonderful can-do attitude and a chestful of medals. A similar sort of chap, I would imagine, to the valiant WLR. A beautiful bugler played the Last Post and during a minute's silence we thought of the heroic Billy LR and the sixteen German airmen who lost their lives in the conflagration as the stricken Zeppelin descended and crashed behind The Plough inn.. 

The next part of the commemoration was to be at St Andrew's Church. As I was about to get into my car Sir Freddie approached to get into his. I couldn't help myself, I gave the charismatic man a big hug. He didn't seem to mind and his driver said that he wouldn't but I realise that I had breached protocol.

We learnt lots of details from various speakers in the church. It was brought home how terrifying the Zeppelins were to Londoners, London being the most important city in the world at the time and Britain seemingly impregnable, with her vast empire. When the Zeppelin was shot down, cheering could be heard from thirty miles away. It was a massive boost to public morale. Huge crowds flocked to Cuffley to see the wreckage and WLR became the first countrywide celebrity of modern times. My own, late, mother-in-law, born in 1902, remembered the incident. 

Michael Naxton, curator of Lord Ashcroft's unique VC medal collection, gave a wonderfully interesting and confidently delivered talk, telling us that the William Leefe Robinson medal is one of his favourites. What a surprise when he produced the medal and pinned it to the chest of an actor due to play the part of WLR in a production later in the day.

As one speaker said, the commemoration was about the ability of the human spirit to push to the edge of the envelope. Per Ardua ad Astra.