Leefe Robinson William Leefe Robinson VC ( 14 July 1895 – 31 December 1918 ) was the first British pilot to shoot down a German airship over Britain during the First World War . For this he was awarded the Victoria Cross , the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces . He was the first person to be awarded the VC for action in the UK . Early life . Robinson was born in Coorg , India on 14 July 1895 , the youngest son of Horace Robinson and Elizabeth Leefe . Raised on his parents ' coffee estate , Kaima Betta Estate , at Pollibetta , in Coorg , he attended Bishop Cotton Boys ' School , Bangalore , and the Dragon School , Oxford , before following his elder brother Harold to St . Bees School , Cumberland in September , 1909 . While there he succeeded his brother as Head of Eaglesfield House in 1913 , played in the Rugby 1st XV and became a sergeant in the school Officer Training Corps . In August , 1914 he entered the Royal Military College , Sandhurst and was gazetted into the Worcestershire Regiment in December . In March , 1915 he went to France as an observer with the Royal Flying Corps , to which he had transferred . After having been wounded over Lille he underwent pilot training in Britain , before being attached to No . 39 ( Home Defence ) Squadron , a night - flying squadron at Sutton ' s Farm airfield near Hornchurch in Essex . Action . On the night of 2 / 3 September 1916 over Cuffley , Hertfordshire , Lieutenant Robinson , flying a converted B . E . 2c night fighter , sighted a German airship – one of 16 which had left bases in Germany for a mass raid over England . The airship was the wooden - framed Schütte - Lanz SL 11 , although at the time and for many years after , it was misidentified as Zeppelin L 21 . Robinson made an attack at an altitude of approaching from below and closing to within raking the airship with machine - gun fire . As he was preparing for another attack , the airship burst into flames and crashed in a field behind the Plough Inn at Cuffley , killing Commander Wilhelm Schramm and his 15 - man crew . This action was witnessed by thousands of Londoners who , as they saw the airship descend in flames , cheered and sang the national anthem , one even played the bagpipes . The propaganda value of this success was enormous to the British Government , as it indicated that the German airship threat could be countered . When Robinson was awarded the VC by the King at Windsor Castle , huge crowds of admirers and onlookers were in attendance . Robinson was also awarded £3 , 500 in prize money and a silver cup donated by the people of Hornchurch . In a memo to his Commanding Officer , Leefe Robinson wrote : The propellor from the plane Leefe Robinson was flying when he shot down the airship is on public display in the Armoury of Culzean Castle in Ayrshire . It was given to the Marquess of Ailsa in thanks for letting his land at Turnberry be used for an RFC flying school . Capture . In April 1917 , Robinson was posted to France as a Flight Commander with No . 48 Squadron , flying the then new Bristol F . 2 Fighter . On the first patrol over the lines , Robinson ' s formation of six aircraft encountered the Albatros D . III fighters of Jasta 11 , led by Manfred von Richthofen , and four were shot down . Robinson , shot down by " Vizefeldwebel " Sebastian Festner , was wounded and captured . He was not well treated by the Germans . He made several attempts to escape but all failed , his health was badly affected during his time as a prisoner . He was imprisoned at Zorndorf and Holzminden , being kept in solitary confinement at the latter camp for his escape attempts . Death . Robinson died on 31 December 1918 at the Stanmore home of his sister , the Baroness Heyking , from the effects of the Spanish flu pandemic to which his imprisonment had left him particularly susceptible . He was buried at All Saints ' Churchyard Extension in Harrow Weald . A memorial to him was later erected near the spot where the airship crashed . This was renovated in 1986 and again in 2009 , the latter occasion being to correct movement of the obelisk and surrounding footpath caused by subsidence . An additional monument was erected in East Ridgeway , unveiled on 9 June 1921 , and by a road named after him ( Robinson Close ) in Hornchurch , Essex on the site of the former Suttons Farm airfield . A short segment of a wartime newsreel survives although the location and date of the recorded event being unknown . He was commemorated by the name of the local Miller & Carter steakhouse just south of the cemetery , the " Leefe Robinson VC " on the Uxbridge Road , Harrow Weald . In April 2010 , to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Great Northern Route extension that connects Grange Park to Cuffley , the First Capital Connect rail company named a Class 313 train " Captain William Leefe Robinson VC " .