Porthcawl's link to the Red Baron

Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen , also, known as the Red Baron was the most celebrated German fighter pilot in World War 1. He was easily spotted by the enemy due to the vermillion colour of his Fokker triplane .

Credited with 80 confirmed kills , it was whilst in pursuit of his 81st that he was shot down near Amiens, 21st April 1918. At the time he was involved in a dogfight involving Canadian airmen, one of whom, Captain Arthur Roy Brown flying a Sopwith Camel, was initially credited with the kill being awarded a bar to his DSC for the feat. It is interesting to note that Captain Brown did not himself claim the victory and was actually saddened at the death of such an accomplished and skillful fellow pilot. However, more recent historical research and evidence attributes the fatal bullet as having been discharged from the Australian Lewis Gunners sited below in Vauz sur Somme.  Of the three possible Gunners of the 4th Australian Division , Buie, Evans and Popkin, it is now widely believed that Sergeant Cedric Bassett Popkin fired the fatal shot, due to the trajectory of the bullet entering the Red Baron’s body in relation to Popkin’s position on the ground.

Sergeant Popkin stated, “As (von Richthofen) came towards me, I opened fire a second time and observed at once my fire took effect. The machine swerved, attempted to bank and make for the ground, and immediately crashed.”

Cedric Bassett Popkin was the eldest son of Dan William Bassett Popkin and Lilian Gilbert Popkin of Sydney, New South Wales. His father Dan, or William as he was known in Wales, was born in 1863 in Maesteg. He emigrated to Australia and married Lilian in 1884 in Queensland. It was after the birth of their first daughter , Gladys that they moved to Sydney, whereupon, Sophie, Marjory and eventually Cedric was born on  20th June 1890. The couple later had two more children, Dorothy born 1892 and finally Roland Gilbert Popkin in 1894.





 On the death of Lilian in 1902 , Dorothy and Roland were sent to live with their father’s sister Matilda, and her husband Lewis George Jones in Aberkenfig. Lewis’s accountancy business was obviously financially successful as according to the 1911 Census, Roland was a scholar at Cowbridge Grammar School, and Dorothy at Howells Girls School, Cardiff. On leaving school Roland studied law at a university in London, from where on 26th October 1916 he was conscripted to the London Regiment (Artist’s Rifles) 28th Battalion Service No 762984.

On the death of her husband, on 17th April 1916, Matilda Jones moved to the Channings, 33,Mary Street, Porthcawl, which was the address Roland had given on his attestation papers. After training, Roland’s unit disembarked in Le Havre on 17th February 1917. Roland Gilbert Popkin was killed in action, in France, on 27th September 1918.



His effects ,including a pair of broken spectacles, were returned to his aunt, now living at 12,Church Street, Porthcawl. In his will he left £135.14s 7d to his sister Dorothy. He was 24yrs of age.

His body lies in Sucrerie British Cemetery, Graincourt-Les-Havrincourt, France. Grave Reference  A24.

Private Roland Gilbert Popkin is, also, remembered on the Porthcawl War Memorial.













His brother, Cedric, survived the war despite losing a leg, and died in 1968 in New South Wales, Australia aged 78years old.