Monday 26 March 2012

The D H Lawrence connection

Robin and business partner Pat Crawford first saw the triplane in a hangar at Land's End airport, where it was in the capable hands of Viv Bellamy who'd originally built it. He was selling it on behalf of the owners.
How odd to find a replica of the Red Baron's triplane in the most remote edge of Southern Britain. However, this wasn't the first time that the area had had a connection with von Richthofen or at least, his family.
His cousin, Frieda von Richthofen, married the controversial author D. H. Lawrence, and in 1914 the couple were resident in Zennor just as The Kaiser's War - as it was known then - was getting underway. The Red Baron had not made his name at that early time, but the Lawrence's were certainly viewed with suspicion and not made welcome. Rumours were rife that Frieda was going to the cliffs to signal German U-boats.
They were eventually forced from their Zennor home and had to leave the UK. Lawrence in particular, never forgot the attitudes of the locals in Zennor, and included some incidents in his later work.