(2nd/3rd September 1916)
(attached to 39 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps)
The Worcestershire Regiment
On the night of 2nd/3rd September 1916 over Cuffley, Hertfordshire, Lieutenant Robinson sighted a German airship - one of 16 which had left bases in Germany on a mass raid over England. The lieutenant made an attack at a height of 11,500ft approaching from below and, closing to within 500ft., raked the aircraft (a wooden-framed Schutte Lanz) with gunfire. As he was preparing for another attack, the airship burst into flames and crashed in a field.
Lieutenant Robinson was born at South Croog, India on the 14th July 1895. He won his VC at the age of 21. He died on the 31st December 1918 at Stanmore, Harrow from the effects of the influenza pandemic at that time spreading around the globe. He is buried at All Saints Church Cemetery Extension, Harrow Weald, Middlesex, England. S.E. Section.
His VC is held by the Ashcroft V.C. Trust Collection.
Leefe-Robinson himself barely survived the Armistice signalling the end of the war. He was shot down, wounded and captured while flying a Bristol fighter in France in April 1917. He was help at Holzminden prisoner of war camp where he mounted several escape attempts for which he was punished by the camp Commandant Niemeyer.
"On the day I arrived at Holzminden I was forbidden to go into Barrack B. I was living in Barrack A. All the other officers had this privilege. The same was forbidden to Captain Leefe Robinson, V.C., who, amongst others of Niemeyer's pet escapees, was being given continually small sentences of cells for absolutely no reason. On one occasion, having obtained permission from a German camp officer to go into Barrack B. to book a tennis court there, he was reported by a N.C.O., and Niemeyer gave him eight days. It meant that he was restricted to half the camp."
William Leefe Robinson VC medal group
Grave of Lieutenant
Robinson