Legendary German fighter pilot The Red Baron left 75-year debt at British shoe shop after leaving fo
LEGENDARY German fighter ace The Red Baron took off for war leaving a British shoe shop in his debt, it has been revealed.
Baron Manfred von Richthofen is famous as the ace of aces of the First World War with 80 air combat victories to his name.
But before the conflict he was a student at Oxford - and was in such a hurry to get back to his homeland in 1914 he left an unpaid bill for 9s 10d for a pair of beagling shoes.
Baron von Richthofen was killed in the final year of the conflict at the age of 25 after being shot down in Northern France.
His debt remained outstanding for 75 years until a family member heard about it and paid up in the late 1970s.
The story has emerged from the historic ledgers of world-famous shoemakers Ducker & Son in Oxford's Turl Street who are closing after 119 years of business.
RELATED STORIES
An entry in the leather-bound ledger shows a "not paid" note on the account the Baron had while he was a student at Oxford's Lincoln College.
He had ordered the pair of beagling shoes from the shop on February 21, 1914 - five months before the outbreak of war.
The debt was settled on February 25, 1989.
The record shows the student also bought a second pair - a pair of patent leather lace shoes - on June 18, just six weeks before the war started. They cost £1 4s 6d and he paid for those on the spot.
Earlier, he had bought a pair of patent leather pumps from the shop in November 1913 and paid the 18s 6d they cost at the time.
Manager Bob Avery said the outstanding bill was settled by a relative of the Red Baron on a visit to Oxford.
He added: "Descendants of the family came in and the bill was mentioned in a joke and it was paid then.
"A few weeks ago some other family members came in and they recalled how the bill had been paid."
Eleven historic ledgers from the shop, which opened in 1898, are being auctioned. They cover the years 1910-1958 and are expected to fetch up to £6,000.
Another famous name in them is Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien who bought a pair of football boots in 1913 when he was a student at Exeter College.
The shop's other well-heeled customers over the years have included author Evelyn Waugh, Rowan Atkinson, Jeremy Clarkson and Eddie Jordan of Formula 1.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTErKynZpOke7a3jqecsKtfZ4R2gpJwcGiklZyyr7DAq7Bmn5WnuqK6jJ%2BgoKCkmr9uvMilpq1lpJ2ybr7EnWSbmaKku264xJ%2BrZm9lYsamrdFmm56apGKutXnBq6CtoaOderS0zp5krKCfpXqistOeqWaklZbDqrrGZp2oql2srrN51qKroaelqXqxrdiipaBlmJ7Abq7IpaNo