Warneford was born on the 15th October 1891 and was from Kerry House, Comeytrowe, Taunton, Somerset. He was awarded the VC immediately by King George for his action but had very little time to enjoy it. On the 17th June he flew coming from Paris in a brandnew plane, accompanied by an American reporter, and crashed the plane for unknown reasons near Versailles. Both men died in the crash. There is an old press story going that the VC medal, which he was wearing indeed, pierced his heart. The medal is now on public display at the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovil, Somerset, England. His gravestone was erected by readers of the Daily express ‘to commemorate the heoic exploit in destroying a Zeppelin airship near Ghent on June 7 1915. The upper part of the grave monument shows a portrait while the down part shows a Zeppelin crashing down in smoke and flames, and the Morane plane of Warneford above it. He is burried at Brompton cemetary, London. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7710919 The Downing of the 1st Zepplin On the night of the 6th June 1915, three Zeppelins - LZ37 from Oblt. van der Haegen, LZ38 from Hptm. Linnarz and LZ39 from Hptm. Masius - left Gontrode for an attack on Britain. However Linaarz got in trouble very early, and the two other Zeppelins had trouble with the fog it seems, not abling them to get to the British coast. They turned back. One of the Naval 1 planes flown by Flight Sub Lt. Warneford detected the Zeppelin in the Oostende area at 01.05 am. It seems he had left from Veurne and was to attack-bomb the sheds at St. Agatha Berchem. He flew a Morane monoplane and quite fast caught up with the airship. This is his battle report - Sir, I have the honour to report as follows : I left Furnes at 01.00 am on June 7th on Morane No 3253 under orders to proceed to look for Zeppelins and attack te Berchem Ste. Agathe airship shed with six 20 lb bombs. On arriving at Dixmude at 01.05 am I observed a Zeppelin apparently over ostend and proceeded in chase of same. I arrived at close quarters a few miles past Bruges at 01.5à am and the airship opened heavy maxim fire, so I retreated to gain height and the airship turned and followed me. At 2.15 he seemed to stop firing and at 2.25 am I came behind, but well above the zeppelin; height then 11,000 feet, and then switched off my engine to descend on top of him. When close abve him, at 7,000 feet I dropped my bombs, and, while releasing the last, there was an explosion which lifted my machine and turned it over. The aeroplane was out of control for a short period, but went into a nose dive, and the control was gained. I then saw that the Zeppelin was on the ground in flames and also that there were pieces of something burning in the air all the way down. The joint on my petrol pipe and pump from the back tank was broken,and at about 2.40 am I was forced to land and repair my pump. I landed at the back of a forest close to a farmhouse; the district is unknown on account of the fog and the continous changing of course. I made preparations to set the machine on fire but apparently was not observed, so was enabled to effect a repair, and continued at 3.15 am in a south westerly direction after considerable difficulty in starting my engine single handed. I tried several times to find my whereabouts by descending through the clouds, but was unable to do so. So eventually I landed and found out that I was at Cape Gris-Nez, and took in some petrol. When the weather cleared I was able to proceed and arrived at the aerodrom about 10.30 am. As far as could be seen the colour of the airship was green on top and yellow below and there was no machine or gun platform on top. I have the honour to be, Sir, Your obediant servant, R.A.J. Warneford. Flt. Sub-Lieutenant. This is the official text on his VC : On 7 June 1915 at Ghent, Belgium, Flight Sub-Lieutenant Warneford attacked and completely destroyed a German airship in mid air. He had chased the airship from the coast near Ostend, and succeeded in dropping his bombs on it, the last of which set the airship on fire, but the explosion overturned the attacking plane and stopped its engine. Having no alternative, Flight Sub-Lieutenant Warneford had to land in hostile country, but after 35 minutes spent on repairs, he managed to restart the engine and returned to base. http://www.forumeerstewereldoorlog....ghlight=&sid=68bfaa704ef51c28ad6fe13d3f7f1d4e
LZ37 was the airship that Warneford downed. His death is a mystery; the aircraft, a Farman F27, turned over in the air and both men were thrown out. His passenger had been nervous about the flight, and one theory is that he panicked and grabbed the controls
I came across this in the New York Times Adrian ! http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E03EED9153DEF3ABC4053DFB066838E609EDE Annie
Pall-bearers from the Royal Naval Division carrying the coffin of Lieutenant R.A.J. Warneford, VC. Photo from The War Illustrated, 3 July 1915. Caption reads: The passing of Lieutenant R. A. J. Warneford, V.C., "Honoured by the King; admired by the Empire; mourned by all." The coffin being carried to the grave in Brompton Cemetery by men of the Royal Naval Division.
