100 Years Ago Today 2

The 30 September 1915 edition of Under the Dome, Bethlem Hospital's in-house magazine, reported: “We have recently been forcibly and visibly reminded that we are at war by a nocturnal visitation by hostile aircraft. Our peaceful slumbers were rudely broken about the hour of eleven by repeated violent detonations and flashes of light. On looking out of our windows we saw the gigantic cigar-shaped form of a Zeppelin, brilliantly illuminated by the shafts of light from our searchlights, hovering over London. The sinister shape was heavily fired upon by our anti-aircraft guns, red flashes from which stabbed the night from all directions, and it presently sheered off discomfited. As a precautionary measure, most of us, staff and patients alike, withdrew to the basement whilst the bombardment lasted, but there were absolutely no signs of panic, hardly even of alarm and everyone behaved in a most creditable and courageous fashion.”