AFTER living in a blaze of glory for just over a week, the Daily Echo revealed the shocking news that Flight Sub Lieutenant Reginald Warneford, the heroic Zeppelin slayer whose gallant actions earlier in the month had not only earned him worldwide notoriety but also the Victoria Cross medal, had been killed in a freak accident that was far removed from the daring “in the line of fire” fighting that he had so had so often braved.

The twenty-three year old airman had been killed whilst test flying an aircraft at an airfield near Paris in a tragic accident that occurred just nine days after he was awarded his VC.

The Great British public had been united in their admiration and gratitude for the young Royal Naval flier when his Majesty the King promptly conferred upon the hero the coveted award “For Valour” for the most conspicuous bravery displayed on the 7th June 1915, when Warneford attacked and single-handedly destroyed a Zeppelin in mid-air near Ghent, with the incident becoming one of the most thrilling in the annals of the British air service during the war.

Ten days later, on 17 June 1915, Warneford travelled to the aerodrome at Buc in order to ferry an aircraft for delivery to the RNAS at Veurne. After completing a test flight, Warneford set off on the trip and whilst flying at a height of two hundred feet Warneford attempted to make a sharp turn to the right. The aeroplane, however, turned completely on its side after the right-hand wing collapsed, and spiralled to the ground.

Neither the lieutenant nor the passenger, the American journalist, Henry Beach Needham, were strapped into the aircraft and were thrown out from the machine during its wild descent. Needham was killed instantly while Warneford was found breathing feebly by rescuers but, despite their best efforts, the great airman died on the way to the hospital in Versailles.

Eerily, the Daily Echo revealed that the lieutenant seemed to have had a premonition of his death just before his fateful last flight. On the previous day someone said to Warneford “What rejoicings there will be when you return to London and see your mother again?” Warneford replied sadly “I feel that I shall die before I return home.” On the following day at the same hour he was killed.

In the days after his death, and prior to his remains being transferred to London for his burial at Brompton Cemetery on June 21st 1915, a great crowd assembled at the hospital in Versailles where a wooden hut was converted into a mortuary for the two dead men. Numerous wreaths were placed upon the coffins, with one particularly striking wreath shaped as an aeroplane with a floral representation of the Victoria Cross on one of the wings, resting on the late Lieutenant’s coffin. The propeller was made of white roses tied with a ribbon bearing the inscription “Honoured by the King, admired by the Empire, but mourned by all.”