Three families, linked by an air battle involving the notorious Red Baron, are gathering for a reunion to commemorate the event, which took place a century ago.
During the fierce dogfight, the German flying ace swooped on a British fighter plane, killing the captain, Tom Rees, and injuring the pilot, Second Lieutenant Lionel Morris, who managed to land the damaged plane, but died later that day.
The moment is captured in a painting by Alex Hamilton, specially commissioned for the WWI exhibition Remembering 1916 – Life on the Western Front at Whitgift school in Croydon, where the families of Rees and Morris will meet Donat von Richthofen, a descendant of the Red Baron.
Manfred Von Richthofen, nicknamed “der Rote Kampfflieger” due to his aristocratic background and the distinctive red triplane he flew, mentioned the battle in his autobiography, published in 1917, remarking: “I honoured my fallen enemy by placing a stone on his beautiful grave.”
The baron commemorated his “first kill” by having a small silver cup made, which he used to drink a toast to his victim. This was the first of many, as he went on to make a total of 80 kills before his death in 1918 at the age of 25.
A replica silver cup, engraved with the name of the aircraft and the date it was shot down, is on display at the exhibition, along with a fragment of fabric from the red triplane, extracts from Morris’s diary, and an original copy of the Red Baron’s autobiography.
Morris was a pupil at Whitgift School in Croydon, Surrey, where the exhibition is being held. In a strange twist of fate, another Whitgift pupil is also connected to the story. After von Richthofen was shot down in Northern France, Old Whitgiftian George Walter Barber of the Australian Medical Corps, was called in to carry out a third autopsy on the body.
His conclusion that the baron had probably been shot from the ground, rather than the air, as had originally been thought, was controversial, offering an alternative interpretation of events and leaving a question mark over the identity of the Red Baron’s killer.
Marking the centenary of a year which saw major conflict in WWI, including the Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme, the exhibition features reconstructions of British and German trenches and an Edwardian drawing room.
Among 600 original items on view are British, French and German uniforms, equipment and weaponry, a German light field wagon, two first issues of the trench newspaper The Wipers Times, and a train station sign from Verdun. A poignant display of poppies completes the exhibition, in memory of former school pupils and teachers who died during the war.
Remembering 1916 – Life on the Western Front is on view at the Whitgift Exhibition Centre, Whitgift School, Croydon. https://www.remembering1916.co.uk/
By Angela Lord
Leave a Reply