Reginald Warneford

Above a Zeppelin he dropped bombs and escaped its fiery end.

Flight Sub-Lieutenant Reginald Alexander John Warneford destroyed the German airship LZ37 near Ghent on 7 June 1915. Flying a Morane-Saulnier monoplane, he climbed above the Zeppelin and dropped bombs onto it. The resulting explosion overturned his aircraft and damaged its fuel system. Forced to land behind German lines, he repaired the fault and took off again, eventually reaching safety.

Born at Darjeeling in British India on 15 October 1891, Warneford spent part of his youth in England and attended King Edward VI School at Stratford-upon-Avon. He joined the British India Steam Navigation Company in 1905. In January 1915 he enlisted in the Royal Fusiliers, then transferred to the Royal Naval Air Service. He qualified as a pilot in February and joined No. 1 Squadron near Dunkirk in May. On an earlier patrol he attacked the Zeppelin LZ39, which escaped.

His destruction of LZ37 brought immediate fame and the Victoria Cross. France also made him a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour and awarded him the Croix de Guerre. Despite surviving the airship's explosion and his dangerous forced landing, he had only ten days left to live.

On 17 June 1915, while flying a new Farman aircraft near Buc outside Paris, Warneford crashed with the American journalist Henry Beach Needham aboard. Both men died. Warneford was brought back to England and buried at Brompton Cemetery, London, aged twenty-three.

Official Victoria Cross citation

For most conspicuous bravery on the 7th June, 1915, when he attacked and, single-handed, completely destroyed a Zeppelin in mid-air. This brilliant achievement was accomplished after chasing the Zeppelin from the coast of Flanders to Ghent, where he succeeded in dropping his bombs on to it from a height of only one or two hundred feet. One of these bombs caused a terrific explosion which set the Zeppelin on fire from end to end, but at the same time overturned his Aeroplane and stopped the engine. In spite of this he succeeded in landing safely in hostile country, and after 15 minutes started his engine and returned to his base without damage.