Charles Epps never played this bugle.
It was given to him to say thank you.

Charles had cycled around Croydon
after First World War air raids.
He sounded the all clear on a bugle
as he went
to let people know they were safe.

Doris describes
taking cover in an air raid:

"I can remember the maroons going off
when there was an air raid.
We used to be in bed
and you'd hear the boom, boom.

Mother would rush you upstairs
and stick you under the table,
and it would be a zeppelin coming over."

Zeppelins were huge German airships.
They were used to drop bombs
during the First World War.
British people had never had to
face bombs at home before
and there was widespread panic.

One night in 1915
a zeppelin dropped
18 bombs on Croydon.
By the end of 1916
over 550 British people
had been killed by the zeppelins.
British fighter pilots and gunners
fought back
and brought many zeppelins down.
The raids stopped in June 1917.

To find out more about the
Zeppelin Raid of October 1915
on Croydon you can visit the
Research Room to view:

*Books such as Croydon in the
Great War by Keathley Moore and
Berwick Sayers
*Ephemera Box on the Zeppelin Raid

The Research Room is on the
Lower Ground Floor of the
Croydon Clocktower and is open
Tuesday-Saturday
10.30-5.


The Zeppelin Raid of 1915 is also
talked about in the new Museum of
Croydon First World War object handling

session for schools.

To find out more information please email
museumeducation@croydon.gov.uk.