First fatal raid by aerial bombardment in Britain

Site of. House on St. Peter’s Plain. Two people killed on 19 January 1915. This plaque replaced the very first one erected by the Society on March 25th 1981 on the 97th anniversary of the raid on 19th January 2012 in the presence of Sky Television News.

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Great Yarmouth had the distinction of being the first place to be bombed from the air, when a German Zeppelin dropped bombs on St. Peters Plain on the 19^th January 1915. The Zeppelin was flying low and was thought to have followed a train into Great Yarmouth’s Beach Station. It dropped nine bombs around the town. 

The scene in St. Peter’s Plain was one of considerable ruin. Windows were blown out and walls and woodwork shattered in all directions and the roadway covered with considerable debris. At the head of a passage the remains of Miss Martha Taylor were found. Her body was shockingly mangled and most of her clothes had been torn off. There was a large wound in the lower part of her body. Part of one of her arms was torn off and lay in the road near her. The other victim, Samuel Smith, had been standing near her and was also killed. A good part of his head had been torn away and was lying in a pool of blood.

Following the raid, Dr. Leonard Ley performed the first ever operation in the world on an air raid casualty.  Ley removed a bomb splinter from a soldier’s breastbone and used it as a tiepin for many years.

Samuel Smith kiled

Martha Tayor killed

St Peter's Plain

A Zeppelin

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