Death from the skies: the great Zeppelin raid of 1916 remembered

They'd have read about German zeppelin raids elsewhere in the country. But nothing like this had ever happened in York. The thought that a giant airship hovering high in the sky could actually drop bombs on the city must, for most people, have been almost unimaginable.

When the first ominous thuds, seeming to come from several miles away, were heard on the evening of Tuesday, May 2, the natural reaction for many was to come out to see what was happening.

A report in the Yorkshire Herald of May 4 gave a vivid account of what happened next.

Presumably for reasons of wartime censorship, the report didn't refer to York by name - merely to "a certain place in Yorkshire". But York it was - and the shock still reverberates to this day.

"At about half past ten on Tuesday night a hostile airship visited a certain place in Yorkshire," the Herald reported.

"A few moments before its arrival the detonation of the bombs could be heard in the distance, as though ten to fifteen miles away.

"The ominous thud of the bombs attracted a good many people into the streets, and very shortly the long cigar-shaped form of a Zeppelin, flying at about 3,000 to 5,000 feet, came into sight. Over a great open space it remained stationary, with engines turned off, for fully three minutes.

"Not a bomb was dropped during this time, and it appeared to the onlookers as if the pilot was taking his bearings.

"When the engines were restarted the airship, with its droning, humming accompaniment of sound, passed over the town. Great volumes of dense black smoke issued from the machine, and many who were too late to see the airship saw the waves and circles of smoke floating with marked contrast against the clear and star-bedecked sky."

What happened next was in stark contrast with the almost poetic beauty of the Herald's report of the initial stages of the attack.

Eighteen bombs were dropped on York, the newspaper reported - causing terrifying destruction in the Nunthorpe Lane/ Upper Price Street area, in Bishophill, and in Hungate.

Zeppelin damage in Bishophill

"Some dwelling houses were more or less shattered," the Herald reported. "One house entirely collapsed, leaving a hole in the ground, while another fell like a pack of cards about the ears of the occupants, a man and his wife, who were killed.

"The death totals nine, and approximately 40 people have been injured. Two or three minutes after the airship had gone out of sight sounds were heard as of the dropping of six bombs a good distance away."

Among the nine people killed that night were 71-year-old George Avison and his wife, Sarah Ann. Their house at 13 Upper Price Street was completely destroyed in the raid.

The other victims - all of whom, apart from Emily Chapman, were killed in St Saviour's Place - were:

• Emily Beatrice Chapman, of 6 Nunthorpe Avenue. According to AJ Peacock in his 'York in the Great War', Emily, 28, who lived with her parents, had gone outside to see the 'German Airship'. "Almost immediately an explosive bomb was dropped in front of her parents' house, and she was struck with a piece of shrapnel in the left shoulder killed immediately,'" wrote Peacock, who drew extensively upon Coroner's records to find out how the victims died.
• Susan Hannah Waudby, 65, of 13 St Saviour's Place. Susan ran a lodging house, and was inside when killed by a piece of shrapnel.
• Ernest Coultish, of 47 Volta Steet, Selby. Ernest, who was in his mid 20s, was employed by Leeman of York as captain of the keel Vera, wrote Peacock. He was walking in St Saviour's Place when he was hit in the stomach by shrapnel. He died in the county hospital two hours later.
• Benjamin Sharpe, 21, a labourer who lived at 1 Wilson's Row. He, too, worked at Leetham's Mill, and had gone to work there that night. "But owing to the lights in the city having to be extinguished owing to the raid he had to leave work about 9.30pm and was on his way home when he was struck with (a) number of pieces of shrapnel in the back and was killed", Peacock reported.
• William Chappelow, of 32 Garden Place, Hungate. Chappelow was a carter, Peacock noted. On the night of the raid, he and his wife Sarah had been to the cinema. They were in St Saviour's Place when he was hit by a bomb. The lower parts of both his legs were blown off, and his skull was fractured.
• Private Leslie Hinson of the 3/ 1st East Riding Yeomanry. Pte Hinson, 18, was stationed in the camp on Knavesmire. He was struck by shrapnel while in St Saviour's Place, and died shortly afterwards in hospital.
• Sergeant (or possibly Corporal) Edward Gordon Beckett of the 1/1st West Riding Divisional Ammunition Column. Sgt Beckett was home on leave and staying with his mother at 4 St John's Place, Hungate. He went outside to see what was happening, Peacock wrote. "And whilst in St Saviour's Place he was struck with a large piece of shrapnel in the right jaw, which killed him instantly."

There are actually some first hand accounts from survivors of the raid, thanks to letters that have come down to us. Dick Hunter, chair of the Clements Hall Local History Group, quotes from a few of them in an illustrated talk he'll be giving about the Zeppelin raid next week.

In one, Norah Chapman, sister of Emily, writes: "My poor darling sister was killed in the air raid, my dear darling mother has had her left arm shot off and I am very badly wounded at the top of my right arm, and three wounds in my back... The house is completely wrecked."

Norah Chapman: a bomb kiled her sister and wounded both her and her mother

In another, Jack Kirby, who, lived at 230 Bishopthorpe Road, wrote: "The Zepp had passed clean over our house and branched off at an increased rate over the Rectory. The next we heard were three awful dull bangs which shook all the doors and windows very badly. These were quickly followed by four more and these by a lot more. Each bang absolutely shook the house."

Mr Hunter, whose talk will be at Clements Hall at 7.30pm on Friday, May 6, admits that it is probably hard, today, to imagine the profound shock felt n York in the wake of the raid. "People would have been aware of zeppelin attacks in other English cities, but it would still have been a shock to experience this," he says. There is evidence that some people, not knowing what was going on, actually came out to have a look at the strange spectacle in the skies, he says.

In the immediate aftermath of the raid, the mood was one of furious indignation. According to Peacock, one contemporary reporter described the raid as 'the work of cads'. The York Conservative Association, meanwhile, passed a resolution 'protesting against the uncivilised warfare of zeppelins' - but also noting that the city lights may have been used as a guide by the airship's pilot.

According to plans drawn up in 1915, there was supposed to be a system in place whereby gas and electric lighting would be raised and lowered to warn people of an impending raid, while - if the raid was late at night - neighbourhood patrols were supposed to warn sleeping citizens.

It is clear that the system didn't work very well on that May 2, Peacock wrote. But in the aftermath of the raid, new streets patrols were set up to give people better warning of future raids.

A Zep Alarm. Photo: York Museums Trust

Personal 'Zep alarms' also became popular. These were simple mechanical devices which could be attached to gas or electric lights, and would set off an alarm bell when the gas or electricity supply was dipped, signalling the onset of a raid.

"A Zepp alarm will enable you to sleep in comfort and perfect security," one advert read.

Perhaps they did. But the skies above York, which until now had been threatening only because of thunder, lightning or snow, were never to be quite as safe again...

• Dick Hunter's illustrated talk Zeppelin Over York will be at the Clements Hall in Nunthorpe Road at 7.30pm on Friday May 6. Admission by ticket only. Tickets £3 (or £1 for members of Clements Hall History Group) from 01904 466086 or email enquiries@clementshall.org.uk
• There will be a volunteer-led talk about the Zeppelin raids - York Zeppelin Raids of 1916 - at York Castle Museum on Thursday May 5 at 12noon.