Great War 'Zeppelin' relics: two framed...

Great War 'Zeppelin' relics: two framed displays of items salvaged from Schütte-Lanz SL11, which was shot down by Lieutenant William Leefe Robinson, V.C., R.F.C., at Cuffley, Hertforshire, 3rd September 1916, in the action that earned him the Victoria Cross: the first frame exhibiting engine radiator tubes formed into the numerals 'LXXI', a stay junction piece with sections of stay attached, and silhouettes of an airship, a German cross and a warplane marked out in ash, with an (erroneous) MS reference to airship L21 to the card mount and a presentation note pasted to the reverse, 17 x 22cm; the second, larger frame displaying various fragments of metal, small components, wire, once-melted metal hardened into amorphous lumps, and other items, with an interior label 'FRAGMENTS OF THE 'ZEPPELIN' BROUGHT DOWN AT CUFFLEY, HERTS. BY Lt ROBINSON SEPT 3RD 1916', 31 x 39cm. [2]

Lieutenant William Leefe Robinson, Royal Flying Corps, was attached to No. 39 (Home Defence) Squadron near Hornchurch in Essex, having been wounded over the Western Front. He took off on patrol before midnight on the 2nd September 1916, and early the following morning he sighted SL11, which at that time formed part of a huge 16 airship raid. After an arduous period spent in pursuit and repeated attacks with incendiary bullets he brought the vessel down in flames. There was some confusion at the time about the identity of the ship he had destroyed, which is reflected in the attribution given by Sub. Lieut Albert L. Davis, who appears as the assembler and presenter of the first display. He describes the ash used as a being from "structure & incinerated Germans".